It's Okay
by The Ink Hidden Within
Summary: "It's okay; it was never your fault to begin with." It all started from that semi-final game in the Fall tournament; and the words of a new first-year in Seidou that sparked and ignited many mixed feelings within the regulars. [Miyuki KazuyaXSawamura Eijun; Yaoi/Shounen-Ai; OC & SPOILERS ALERT]
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Daiya no A.

Warning: Shounen-Ai, OOC, abusive languages

**(MAJOR) SPOILERS** from the Manga chapters that are not yet English translated and released

Pairing: Miyuki Kazuya X Sawamura Eijun

Just a random inspiration because I'm totally into this anime now. I've read the raw manga chapters already, so there are spoilers in this story. Don't say I didn't warn you already.

Putting that aside, I would first like to apologize for any mistakes here and there!

Without further ado, enjoy~! =)

A/N: Suzuki Natsuki is an OC I created. Timeline for the story happens during Sawamura's second year in Seidou High School Baseball Team. This story is an alternate reality where Sawamura is the one that got injured during their game against Seikou in the semifinals of the autumn tournament.

**It's Okay**

**Chapter 1**

"… You really have no intention of admitting your faults do you?"

"…"

"Or reflecting on your actions today?"

"…"

"Suzuki-kun."

"… It's not my fault."

Takashima sighed as she looked at the first-year pitcher standing in front of her while she sat down in the bench. Who would have thought that such a problem would occur? She can only sighed again in defeat as she slumped her shoulders while watching the first-year moving his attention to the bullpen, where the second-year pitcher Furuya and third-year pitcher Kawakami are practicing their pitching.

_He really doesn't know what he has done hasn't he?_

Takashima was going to start her lecture again when suddenly she was interrupted.

"Hey Rei-chan!" A guy wearing his goggles and catcher gear cheerfully greeted the assistant manager. It was then he noticed the tension between the two in the bench and he could sense the annoyance from Takashima. "What's wrong? Why are you here with Rei-chan, Suzuki? Shouldn't you be practicing with Sawamura?"

Miyuki asked as he began to remove his catcher gear in the bench, but Suzuki didn't seem to have the intention of answering him. Miyuki could only looked at Takashima in confusion, which he got a surrender sigh in return. Nevertheless, he got his answer.

"Sawamura-kun is talking with the coach right now," Takashima answered, but Miyuki became more confused. "Suzuki-kun… wishes to change his training in charge."

Miyuki's confused face quickly changed into a frown, and he turned to stare at Suzuki, silently asked for an explanation. But the first-year still didn't seem to have any intention of answering.

"Well?" Miyuki asked, this time prompting a hint of slight annoyance in his voice.

"… Sawamura-senpai is totally not putting his heart into practice," The pitcher finally answered after he turned to face Miyuki, indicating his attention on him. "I still don't get it why must I practice with him for the Kanto tournament."

"… You do know that we're trying to get you to learn ball control from Sawamura right?" Miyuki asked as his frown widened. "Since both of you are able to pitch moving ball; Sawamura is the best person to teach you that. Beside, it's not confirmed yet you are going to appear in any games for the Kanto tournament. You are still in the second string, what makes you think you are going to play?" Miyuki asked, not hiding the annoyance in his voice.

"Because Sawamura-senpai said he's not," Suzuki answered without hesitation.

Miyuki's eyes immediately widened as he heard the answer from Suzuki. Shock evident in his face, he quickly turned to look at Takashima, who also showed surprise from such a news.

_Shit, what is that idiot thinking?_ Miyuki mentally pulled his hair in annoyance.

"Sawamura-senpai's in the first string right?" Suzuki continued, ignoring the shock and confusion occurring between the captain and the assistant manager. "Since he's not going to play, there is a spot open. It means there's a chance anyone from the second string can replace him and play right?"

"… And you think you are the one who's going to take his spot?" Miyuki asked, back to the serious face towards the first-year pitcher.

"Yes," the first year answered without hesitation, slightly surprising Miyuki. Miyuki stared at Suzuki for a while, before beginning to laugh lightly.

"Hahaha! That's some confidence you have for a first-year! No wonder our coach has taken a liking to you!" Miyuki continued his cackle for some time, but he suddenly stopped and faced Suzuki once again, with a serious face. "But that doesn't mean that you should stop listening to your seniors. Coach have you practiced with Sawamura for a reason." Miyuki explained as he put down his leg gears and walked towards the first-year. The two players had an intense staring competition for a while, before Miyuki smirked, sensing his confidence and determination. He placed his hand on the Suzuki's shoulder.

"The coach put him in charge of you, and I trust his judgment. Nothing will go wrong if you listen to Sawamura, though he is still an idiot," Miyuki showed a more sincere and real smile this time as he thought back to those days he spent his time practicing with the second-year pitcher last year. He also began to laugh more cheerfully this time. "Well, even though he's an idiot to me, he's still your senior. So show a little respect for him, will ya?"

Miyuki asked as he looked confidently at the first-year, which surprised Suzuki. Suzuki looked at his captain for a while with widened eyes, but suddenly blinked and frowned, his annoyance became obvious as he furrowed his eyebrows. Miyuki mentally laughed as he looked at the first year. _He behaves so much like a certain someone last year. _

"… I don't understand."

"Hmm?" Miyuki and Takashima looked again at the first year in slight confusion.

"I don't understand," Suzuki replied as he turned around to face Miyuki. "Why is everyone willing to put so much faith in _that_ guy?"

Miyuki twitched his eyebrow in annoyance. "Oi, oi, what did I just say about showing respect-"

"But he's not showing any respect towards _me_!" Suzuki, finally reached his limit of his patience, decided to just scream out his true feelings. "He's not properly teaching me how to control my pitches! All he did was passing me a few old scrolls with a few exercises set inside, ordering me to do them regularly, and he's restricting me for having my own extra practices at night!"

"Oi, that's-"

"And last night, all I did was running extra two miles from his training menu, and he lectured me in front of everyone this morning without giving a thought to _my_ feelings! Do you know how embarrassing was that?! It was just another two miles!"

And this time, it was Takashima trying to intercept. "That's-"

"Although he did explain to me before that he used the same methods to get stronger, which is all thanks to Chris-senpai as he had explained, that doesn't mean it works for me! I can't see myself getting strong enough for the team by doing things _his_ way! Not especially when he left early during practice or even skipped, almost everyday! If I'm really under his charge, shouldn't he be spending more time mentoring me and teaching me new methods to control my pitches, like how to throw them at which grip or something like that?! I don't see the point of doing such exercises! I don't have much time before the Kanto tournament, so shouldn't he be teaching me on how I should throw my pitches already?!

"So tell me, how am I suppose to practice properly, when Sawamura-senpai doesn't have the heart to teach me!" Suzuki had begun to scream, catching the attention of baseball members practicing nearby. "Or worse, I think he doesn't even _want_ to teach me anything at all! He's afraid, isn't it?!"

Upon hearing those words, Takashima seemed to have something to argue with, but was quickly stopped by Miyuki who raised his hand in silence.

"That's it, isn't it?! He's afraid of teaching me and me getting stronger! So that I won't take away his spot in the regulars lineup! That's why he's not teaching me anything at all! He's just toying with me and making sure I don't get any better! He's just trying to sabotage me by making sure I don't get stronger! Than him!" The first-year began to pant, slightly in relief as he finally was able to pour out every of his feelings and frustration inside him.

Miyuki silently looked at him as he allowed the first-year to catch his breathe.

"… Have you calmed down now?" Miyuki finally asked as he sensed the first-year's fading pants. However, silence was his answer. "I'll ask coach to have you stop practice for the day. Go back and calm yourself down before you practice again."

Suzuki widened his eyes, shocked from the words coming from his captain. "But-"

"Captain's orders, Suzuki," Miyuki said firmly as he slightly glared at the first year. "It should be fine right, Rei-chan?"

"… Yes," the assistant manager could only mentally agree with the captain as she saw his eyes. "You're done for the day, Suzuki-kun. We'll see you tomorrow."

Suzuki couldn't believe what he heard. Throwing him out of practice just because he decided to pour out all of his true feelings? All just because of that second-year pitcher? All just because of Sawamura, that pitcher senior of his who was probably trying to make sure he doesn't become stronger and replace him?

"B-But that's not fair!"

"Go back and calm yourself down," Miyuki repeated his orders firmly. "And although I won't be telling Sawamura anything, I think it would be better for you to apologize to Sawamura once you are calm." And with that, Miyuki began to walk away, with the intention to have some batting practice and stop listening to the first-year. He didn't think he could get any more annoyed and agitated.

"…What!" Suzuki took a while to process the words that were incredulous to him from the captain. Not only they were throwing him out of practice, they were expecting him to humiliate himself and apologize to the senior he least wanted to be with? "No way I'm going to apologize to that selfish little-"

"Suzuki," Miyuki said monotonously, but Suzuki was able to catch the warning tone behind, and it was intensified with a glare from the catcher through his goggles. "Having confidence is a good thing, but being over-confident is another matter. If you don't want any seniors to group together and assault you in the future, I would suggest you better be careful with what you say from now on."

Takashima sighed when she saw this; she could tell that Miyuki was trying very hard to contain his anger.

"Suzuki-kun," the assistant manager finally saw the need to interfere this time. "I'll tell the coach that you are excused for the day. Meanwhile, why not you head to my office and wait for me? I would like to have a word with you." Takashima instructed as she stood in front of the first-year.

"No way! It's not fair!" Suzuki, upset with the situation, began to scream again. But he saw that Miyuki continued to walk away, indicating his intention of not listening to him anymore. "It's not my fault to begin with! It was Sawamura-senpai's! He-"

"Oi!" Suzuki flinched and fell forward slightly as he received a kick from behind.

"Ouch!" The first-year groaned and turned around to find out who was the culprit. "What the hell was that for?! Kuramochi-senpai!"

"Shut the hell up! You're noisy!" Kuramochi said as he glared hard at the first-year. The first-year flinched again when he saw his senior's menacing eyes. "And in case you didn't notice, the other seniors are all ready to kill you for being too noisy and distracting." Kuramochi said as he used his thumb to point towards the field. Indeed, eyes from all members in the field _were_ looking in his direction. Suzuki ignored them though, thinking that the reason was because he was being noisy like Kuramochi said.

But he didn't know how wrong he was, which made him persistent in his defense against Sawamura.

"Kuramochi-senpai!" he continued shouting despite what Kuramochi said. "You got to help me! Captain Miyuki is chasing me out of practice! All because of that Sawamura!"

He failed to realize that Kuramochi was narrowing his menacing eyes on him.

"I get it, but orders are orders," Kuramochi said calmly and monotonously. "So go and follow them, idiot." And once again, Suzuki was bewildered.

He failed to realize that Haruichi is raising his arm, getting ready to throw the ball he had in his hand onto his face.

"Y-You too, Kuramochi-senpai?" the first year said, and received silence as an answer. "You also think that I'm wrong?"

He failed to realize that Seto was trying to signal him to keep quiet.

"Suzuki-kun," Takashima called out to the pitcher again, hoping this time that he would obediently listen to orders and not make matters worse.

He failed to realized that Kawakami, who just entered the field from the bullpen with Furuya, was trying _very_ hard to stop the fired-up fellow pitcher from charging towards him; he was trying hard not to do so himself.

"B-But I'm the one being sabotaged here!" Suzuki stubbornly trying to get himself out and started again.

He failed to realize that Maezono was tightening his grip on his bat, getting ready to swing and hit onto his face.

"That guy! He keeps telling me how important it is to get stronger for the sake of the team, that baseball is a team play, that you must always act for the sake of the team and my nakama!"

He failed to realize that Kanemaru was throwing his glove down and heading towards him.

"But look at him! He's trying to sabotage his own nakama! What kind of player is that?!"

And he failed to realize that Miyuki had stopped walking away at some point, and was watching him with menacing eyes as he continued.

"Such a selfish player like him has no right to play baseball at all!"

And Suzuki Natsuki was definitely not prepared for the pain on his back as he was shoved roughly onto the walls of bench.

_****Line Break****_

"Sawamura-senpai."

But no reply came. The walk back was supposed to be awkward, but not for the first year blonde catcher, Okumura Koushuu.

"Sawamura-senpai," Koushuu called again louder this time, and he managed to get the pitcher's attention.

"Ah, sorry Koushuu," Sawamura said as he stopped walking and turned to face the catcher with surprise and confusion. "I wasn't paying attention. What were you saying?"

A sigh came from Koushuu.

"… Are you still upset?" Koushuu asked with a neutral face, and the question further surprised Sawamura even more.

"Ah… well, that's…" Sawamura answered as he scratched the back of his head. He was feeling slightly awkward. "A-A little I guess…"

"I'm sorry if this is going to sound rude," Koushuu said as he continued walking, which Sawamura followed. "But the coach's right; you _are_ not ready for the Kanto tournament."

The second-year pitcher had to bite his lips from retorting back. He knew more than anyone else that he wasn't ready, and how much he was going to be a burden to the team if he insisted on playing.

"Although it's true that you have recovered from your broken ribs, infected punctured lungs and ruptured spleen, you are still in the midst of recovering from your broken fingers and fractured knee," Koushuu said, hoping to remind the pitcher who he heard was the most reckless player in the team. "Furthermore, while you are recovering in the hospital, you had missed the whole winter training camp and Senbatsu. I don't think that your shoulder is ready for pitching and fielding for any upcoming games. The you right now does not have the same strength as you had during the autumn tournament."

"… I know that already," the pitcher replied slightly annoyed. "It's just that, I really can't wait to be back on the mound. I… I want to play with everyone again, on the field," The pitcher exclaimed as he clenched his fist in front of his chest.

The first-year catcher slightly smiled as he saw the determination behind those eyes. That was what he wanted to see.

"You'll be fine," Koushuu said as he patted lightly on Sawamura's back. "Apparently I heard you were really lucky; the doctor was able to stop the bleeding in your ruptured spleen, and other than your knee and two of your fingers, all of your joints are fine; probably thanks to that body flexibility you were born with. So you just have to go for your rehabilitation regularly and I'm sure you'll be able to play soon. In fact, I am going to make sure of that."

"Koushuu…" The pitcher's eyes widened slightly as he looked at his junior upon hearing those words.

"So please concentrate on your full recovery," And this time it was Koushuu's turn to show his determination in his eyes to the pitcher. "I'm still waiting for you to let me catch your best pitches."

_For it was because of this reason I chose to come to Seidou._

Hearing such encouragement from his junior, Sawamura couldn't help but finally smiled back as he playfully and lightly punched Koushuu's shoulder.

"…Thanks, Koushuu."

"You're welcome, Sawamura-senpai," Koushuu said as he began to walk with the intention of reaching their destination, with Sawamura following behind. The walk back was quiet, until Koushuu remembered something that had been on his mind since this morning. "By the way, Sawamura-senpai."

"Yes, Koushuu?"

"What are you going to do about Suzuki?"

"Huh?" Sawamura asked as he looked at the blonde with a confused face. "What do you mean?"

"About the things he said just now," Koushuu replied, trying to contain his annoyance in his voice. "Aren't you going to do anything about it?"

"_There's no way I'm practicing with someone like you anymore! I seek for a more understanding and stronger willed senpai to help me perfect my pitch; and that person is definitely not you!"_

Sawamura twitched upon remembering the words. Koushuu could see the sadness behind those eyes before Sawamura could hide them with his fringes.

"Ah… as for that…" Sawamura mumbled, surprising Koushuu when he saw Sawamura suddenly looked up at him with a forced smile in embarrassment. "I guess I'm pretty a bad instructor huh…"

Koushuu narrowed his eyes when Sawamura started to laugh forcefully

"Guess I'm not used to this yet…" And the pitcher suddenly pinched his chin while having a serious thinking expression. "Maybe I could get Miyuki-senpai's help to review his training menu or something-"

"Ah! Koushuu! Sawamura-senpai!" A shout interrupted Sawamura, making him and Koushuu turned immediately towards the source of the voice. Seto quickly ran towards the duo he called for.

"Takuma?" Koushuu was confused by the presence of his bespectacled friend, who was supposed to be practicing his fielding right now. "What's going on? Why are you running here-"

"S-Sawamura-senpai!" Both the pitcher and catcher were pretty shocked when Seto turned his full attention on Sawamura when Koushuu was the one who was asking the questions. "Y-You got to do something!"

"Huh?" Sawamura could only replied in total confusion.

"At the field! Suzuki and Miyuki-senpai are-!"

And that was enough for Sawamura to widen his eyes in shock and charge towards the field as fast as he could when he heard those words, leaving Seto to explain the details to his blonde friend.

_****Line Break****_

"_Such a selfish player like him has no right to play baseball at all!"_

Miyuki's eyes widened as he heard those words. And that's when the horrifying images flashed through his mind like a bullet train trying to force into his walls.

_The sound of a baseball landing into the catcher's mitt._

"…_Strike! Batter out!"_

_The sound of cheers and applause._

"…_Game set! An astounding victory for Seidou!"_

_The sound of boots running towards the mound._

"_We did it, Sawamura! We won!"_

_The sound of victory howls and patting of backs._

"_We're going Senbatsu! We did it!"_

_The sound of sniffing from tears of joy and hugging._

"_We won, Sawamura! We won!"_

_The sound of pants from the pitcher._

"_O-Oi! Sawamura! Can't you hear us? We won! We won the match! Hell yeah!"_

_The sound of pants continued._

"_S-Sawamura? Oi, w-what's wrong with you?"_

_The sound of pants stopped._

"_I-I see…"_

_The sound of an exhausted pitcher._

"_W-We won…"_

_The sound of a weakened player._

"_Sawamura?"_

_Silence from everyone except for the pitcher standing on the mound._

"_W-We did it, we finally won…"_

_And the sound of a body collapsing onto the mound._

"_SAWAMURA!"_

_And the words from the man he last wanted to see for his entire life._

"_A catcher that can't see the pains of his pitcher, has no right to play baseball at all."_

And at that moment, Miyuki saw white. And before he knew what he was doing, he had his hand fisted into the collar of the first-year pitcher and forcefully shoved him up the walls of the bench, fast enough before anyone could stop him, or perhaps, before anyone else had the chance to do it.

"Ouch! H-Hey!" Suzuki immediately shouted in pain and shock and attempted to glare at his captain. "What the hell do you think… you… are… doing…"

But the first year pitcher began to stutter when he saw and noticed the anger and menace behind the glare from the third-year catcher. And staring into his eyes right now was really a bad idea. He could feel the chills down in spine and he could feel himself beginning to cower in fear upon the intense glare he was receiving at the moment.

"M-M-M-Miyuki… senpai?" He didn't know anymore if he could form the right words from his mouth now.

"… I tried," Miyuki finally began to speak after glaring at the pitcher for several seconds, which to the first year was probably several minutes, or even hours. If looks could kill, it would have been an immediate death for him. "I tried very hard already, to not take your words into heart and ignore them. It is your freedom after all to say whatever you want, and I have no intention of judging you too soon, that's why I kept quiet and let you complain whatever you want.

"BUT! Those last words you said," Miyuki tightened his fist, and Suzuki was beginning to feel the pressure at his collar and neck. He was beginning to suspect that there's a chance he might be tortured and killed by suffocation slowly and painfully. "Are the only words I CANNOT forgive."

Suzuki could almost swear that he could see a change in the colour of the eyes of his captain, and figuratively, he could see the blood red anger behind those eyes through the goggles. He didn't even realize that his face was beginning to pale, his hands were shaking and his mouth was extremely dry, as if something had caught in his throat and adam's apple, rendering him unable to form any words to speak at all.

Probably for the first time since he came into Seidou, Suzuki Natsuki was scared as hell.

And Miyuki could not remember the last time he got this angry with anyone.

"You think you are special, huh?" Miyuki said as he continued to glare, as if making sure that Suzuki is properly listening and paying attention to him. "So special to the point that you have the rights to decide who should and shouldn't play baseball? If baseball would have been this simple, then what the fuck are you doing here? If you can't give a damn to your own training, then you are welcome to do whatever you want during practice. But insulting others is something that no one has the right to do. Not you or even me. Don't go insulting other's hard work when you don't even know a damn thing."

Suzuki heard those words, but he couldn't move at all. He could only continued looking at Miyuki with widened eyes filled with fear and shock. He could only stay silent as Miyuki pierced him forcefully with those eyes of his.

There's a saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul. But to Suzuki, he probably had opened the windows to Miyuki's hellish wrath.

"Miyuki-kun…" Takashima and the baseball members who had gathered around watched the exchange between the two in silence. Mixed feelings were gathered as well, especially through the seniors who were there during the finals of the autumn tournament, while most of the first years were confused at the tense atmosphere around the seniors.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing!" a very familiar shout to the seniors suddenly cut into the tension, causing everyone to look at the source in shock. It was at this moment that Suzuki saw Miyuki blinked, immediately changing the mood in his eyes from anger to surprise. "What the heck, Miyuki! No violence! Let Suzuki go!"

Miyuki turned his head slowly towards the source of the voice, noticing Sawamura trying to squeeze his way through the crowd, eventually reaching him and the first-year he held onto the wall.

"Sawamura…" Miyuki blinked again, and this time, Suzuki saw no anger or surprise. This time, he could feel the gentleness behind those eyes, quickly changing to sadness as he kept continued staring at the second-year pitcher.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me?" Sawamura quickly trotted his way to the intense duo. "I said, let him go!" And with that, Sawamura pulled Miyuki away from Suzuki, causing Suzuki to slide down the wall and sit on the bench floor when he was free. However, still being shocked from Miyuki's outburst, Suzuki's hands were still shaking and his eyes still widened, looking at the ground. He couldn't register the presence in front of him and the hand on his shoulder at all. "Hey, Suzuki, you alright? Answer me if you are! You're not hurt, aren't you?"

Sawamura could only keep repeating his words to the first-year who seemed to be shell-shocked. Meanwhile the other team members were rather surprised and shaken up by the turn of events. Leave it to Sawamura, who always seemed to be the one who could not read the atmosphere and be very insensitive to the feelings of others.

"Damn it, Miyuki," Sawamura said when he realized he was not getting any response from Suzuki. He began to pull his hair lightly in frustration. "Now you've done it. What did you do that for?"

However, instead of getting a proper answer, he suddenly felt tugging at his wrist and felt himself being pulled up suddenly and away from the first-year.

"Hey! Miyuki!" Sawamura tried to struggle free from the hold Miyuki had on his wrist. "What do you think you're doing? Let go!"

However, Miyuki ignored him and continued walking away, roughly pulling Sawamura along with him.

"Oi, Miyuki! I said let go!"

"Kuramochi, Rei-chan," Miyuki suddenly stopped, calling out these names. But Sawamura still found himself unable to break free from the hold on his wrist. "I'll leave the rest to you."

"Ya sure, go ahead, idiot," Kuromochi answered, prompting Miyuki to continue walking and dragging Sawamura along.

"Okumura," He only stopped again when they were beside Koushuu, who silently looked at Miyuki, as if he was waiting. "… I'll leave that idiot to you."

"… Understood, Miyuki-senpai," Koushuu replied after some seconds. "Be careful with Sawamura senpai though. He's still in his rehabilitation period." Koushuu reminded with the last part in a whisper, hoping Miyuki would take the hint. His worries were cleared when Miyuki replied with a nod.

And Sawamura was not prepared for himself to be lifted off the ground and carried bridal style by Miyuki. Sawamura's face immediately blushed in embarrassment.

"H-Hey! What do you think you're doing!" Sawamura began to struggle in Miyuki's arm. "Put me down, you idiot! Hey!"

"Oh, shut the hell up, Sawamura," Miyuki growled in annoyance, sending a glare towards the pitcher he was carrying. Sawamura could only stay still upon seeing the anger behind the eyes. An angry Miyuki was something he didn't want to experience it again.

Finally getting the obedience he needed, Miyuki made his way out of the field, seemingly towards the school dormitories. Koushuu watched the two in silence, and once he saw that their figures disappeared out of his sight, he began to walk towards the stilled first-year in the bench. Kuramochi watched Suzuki silently, and Takashima quickly sent the players back to their practices.

And soon all three of them were standing around the first-year pitcher, watching him in disappointment and concern.

"… We need to talk, Suzuki."

_**To Be Continued**_

Initially wanted it to be a oneshot, but it would only be possible and feel good for me if I only explore the feelings and comforts in Miyuki's POV. Probably going to be a multi-chapter now for me to explore the feelings for the other characters as well because I LOVE THEM ALL. XD

Review or comment please? It's my first DnA fanfic so I can't be very sure that I did a good job in portraying the characters.

Regards,

Ink-chan


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Daiya no A.

Warning: Shounen-Ai, OOC, abusive languages

**(MAJOR) SPOILERS** from the Manga chapters that are not yet English translated and released

Pairing: Miyuki Kazuya X Sawamura Eijun

Thank you all so much for the patience. Didn't expect that number of response from the first chapter within such a short time. Here's the second chapter you've all been waiting! =)

Once again, I apologize for any mistakes made.

Without further ado, enjoy! =D

**It's Okay**

**Chapter 2**

The walk between the two battery partners was awkward; with Sawamura feeling extremely embarrassed being seen by so many people for being carried by his team captain. They were even seen by the assistant coach Ochiai, who demanded to know what had happened.

"I'm bringing this idiot back to his room to get some rest before he leaves for his rehabilitation," Miyuki was able to explain naturally. "He said he is feeling some discomfort on his knee so I thought of checking it out in his room."

"Hey!" Sawamura who was silent throughout finally shouted in Miyuki's arms. "Don't call an idiot! And I didn't say-"

"We'll be going off now," Miyuki interrupted before Sawamura could finish his sentence and walked away before they could be questioned further.

"…What was that for?" Sawamura annoyingly asked the catcher as he crossed his arms when he saw that Ochiai was out of their sight. "Since when did I feel discomfort in my knee?"

"I don't want to stay there and answer boring questions too long," Miyuki answered as he continued walking. "You're heavier than I thought; did you get fat, Sawamura?"

Upon hearing this, Sawamura could immediately sense the teasing tone behind.

"Then put me down this instant!" And he finally started struggling. "I can walk perfectly on my own; so put me down, will you?"

At this moment, Miyuki finally stopped walking, and then turned to stare hard at the pitcher, as if he was studying him. Sawamura, feeling the intense stare from Miyuki, stopped struggling, but became slightly restless, as he felt conscious with himself under Miyuki's stare. He suddenly couldn't look straight at his eyes and time seemed to flow very slowly for Sawamura.

It was soon after that he heard a sigh, prompting Sawamura to look up. What surprised him after that was that he felt his legs being placed down onto the ground slowly, and the hand on his back was gently pushing him up to stand up straight.

"Miyuki?" Sawamura looked up at the catcher again in confusion, but this time he couldn't see his eyes due to the reflection of the lights on his goggles. He got no reply for several seconds, making Sawamura increasingly nervous and puzzled.

_Say something already!_

"…There's no one here you know?" Miyuki finally talked after it seemed that a long time had passed.

"Huh?" Sawamura jerked at the sudden words, and looked towards his captain in confusion.

"I said," Miyuki sighed; he almost forgot how slow Sawamura was when it comes to such things. "There's no one else here other than us."

Sawamura finally took in those words, and then looked around them. True enough, they were already at the entrance of the dormitories and since most of the students staying had club activities, the dormitories should be empty by now.

"Well, am I right? Eijun~?" Sawamura then looked back at Miyuki, who was now showing him a smirk. But the smirk was enough for the pitcher to blush hard and become more nervous than before. And the playful tone in the catcher's voice when he said his first name made the pitcher blush even harder.

To think Miyuki was in a really bad mood just minutes before this. _That was a really quick change of mood!_

Pre-occupied with his own embarrassment in the situation, Sawamura failed to realize that Miyuki was walking towards him, realizing it only when he looked up, shocked at the closeness between his face and Miyuki's.

"So?" Miyuki asked expectantly at the pitcher, the smirk still on his face that made Sawamura tempted to punch him. But he knew that he couldn't do that; and he won't. He didn't think that his face could become more redder than it was now, and once again, he found himself unable to look into Miyuki's eyes again as he gave him what he wanted.

"K-K-Ka… Kazuya."

And Miyuki's grin couldn't get any wider.

_****Line Break****_

"…_Asou! Back Home!"_

"_Shit! The ball!"_

"_Miyuki! Catch it!"_

"_Sawamura! Base cover!"_

"_I've got it!"_

"_Sawamura! Watch out-!"_

Suzuki could only watch in horror as he saw the body of the giant pitcher of Seikou slammed into the smaller body of Sawamura's at the home plate on the TV screen. His eyes widened even more when he saw Sawamura slowly picking himself up and raised his glove to show the ball in his hand.

"…_Out! Using his own body, Pitcher Sawamura blocks the advances of Ogawa, despite the rough play!"_

"I-Is that really Sawamura-senpai?" Suzuki asked, still unable to comprehend the scene played in front of his eyes. "And, Asou-senpai was a regular player?"

Apparently Kuramochi, Takashima and Koushuu had brought Suzuki to the meeting room, and they decided to play the DVD records of their game against Seikou to Suzuki, finally leading him to the truth about his training in charge.

"This is the reason why Asou-senpai was demoted to the second string last fall," Kuramochi explained while he continued to watch the game playback on the TV screen. "A mistake in throwing he made in that match, forces Miyuki to leave the home plate to catch the ball and Sawamura to base cover, leading him to the rough play he had to withstand."

"_A fine play by pitcher Sawamura!"_

"And this… is the reason why Sawamura now could not play like he used to," Kuramochi said as he slowly turned to look at the first-year, shocking Suzuki even more with the sadness behind those slanted eyes. "Despite suffering such a huge blow from Ogawa of Seikou, he managed to act as if nothing happened to him and most of us were fooled by him. He continued playing throughout the match; not to mention he had played too in our next game against the Yakushi at the next day."

"Y-You mean Sawamura-senpai was injured thanks to that body slam right?" Suzuki asked as he couldn't help but being more curious. "No one actually checked up on him or suspected anything wrong with him?"

"We did," this time, it was Takashima answered as she saw that Kuramochi had started to stiffen and avoid eye contact with anyone at that question. "We tried to do a thorough physical checkup on him after the Seikou match, but Sawamura-kun had insisted at that time that other then feeling some discomfort at his fingers on his right hand, he found no other problems or pains in himself. And probably because he was able to continue to play very well till the ninth inning in that match that most of us really thought that he was still in his best condition despite the impact he received. So that's why we allowed him to continue practicing his pitches and played in the next game as well. But, if we had known-"

Takashima gasped slightly and stopped her words when she heard the sudden sound of a chair dragging. The assistant manager and Suzuki immediately looked towards the source while Koushuu, who was just standing beside the door, merely opened his eyes to look at his vice captain in concern. He could feel the intense aura around him that filled with regrets and sadness.

"Kuramochi-kun?" Takashima called out to him in concern; also worried about Kuramochi's change in mood.

"Sorry about that, Takashima-san," Kuramochi said monotonously as he began to walk towards the door. "I'll take my leave first. I'll leave things to you." And with that Kuramochi left the meeting room, creating and leaving behind a tension in the room.

"W-What's wrong with Kuramochi-senpai?" Suzuki asked timidly, curiosity piling up within him despite beginning to cower in the tensed atmosphere. However, it seemed that the assistant manager had no intention of answering him as she was still worried about the shortstop. "Takashima-san?"

"… From what I heard," Koushuu, sensing Takashima's worries, decided to answer in her stead. "Kuramochi-senpai was the only one who knew about Sawamura-senpai's true condition during the finals of the fall tournament."

"What?!" the first-year pitcher gaped in shock upon hearing those. Takashima, on the other hand, continued looking at the door, as if she could see through it and watch the whole process of Kuramochi leaving the meeting room and walking back to practice in a quiet and depressed state.

_Even after all this time, you still blamed yourself, do you? Kuramochi-kun?_

And of course she could not see the tightening of his fist and the gritting of his teeth as Kuramochi stood outside the door.

_****Line Break****_

"Y-You know, Miyuki. T-There's no need for you to be here," Sawamura said as he removed his undershirt and threw it somewhere on his room floor. He cursed the stutter in his voice mentally; he was pretty nervous and conscious of himself changing in front of Miyuki. "I-I can change my clothes and make my way to the training center on my own, so you should head back to practice now."

Miyuki, who was sitting on Sawamura's chair while the latter was changing beside his bed, clicked his tongue as he turned around and faced the back of the pitcher. The pitcher was about to reach for his fresh shirt on his bed when he heard the sound of annoyance from the catcher.

"What?" Sawamura turned his head and faced the catcher, who he saw was hugging the back of his chair and pouting. Miyuki couldn't help but sighed at the puzzled expression from his pitcher.

"Guess it takes time huh…" Miyuki said, a hint of disappointment in his voice obvious.

"W-What are you talking about?"

"My name, Eijun," Miyuki said, causing Sawamura to blink in surprise at the mention of the topic. "We've already dated for at least three months already, and you're still not used to calling me by my first name."

"W-W-Well, that's… Erm…" Sawamura blushed heavily while beginning to think of an excuse, which he couldn't make up one. Miyuki looked at Sawamura, and then suddenly smirked when he noticed how flustered his _boyfriend_ had become just for such a simple topic of calling his first name.

"Hmm, I guess it means I have to do something about it then," Miyuki said as the teasing tone in his voice became increasingly obvious. _But at least you stopped calling me with honorifics. That's an improvement, I guess; though you never really did call me with the honorifics as a senior._ Miyuki's grin went even wider. "You are a slow learner after all, idiot."

"Don't call me an idiot!" Sawamura immediately protested as he turned quickly to face Miyuki's smug face and swung his arms in protest despite it failing due to his red face. However, the smug face disappeared quickly, when the catcher gasped lightly and widened his eyes slightly. Sawamura became confused over the sudden change in his boyfriend's mood. "Miyuki? What's wrong?"

He then saw Miyuki stare at him for a few seconds, before biting his lips and stood up, the movement causing some reflection on his goggles, making Sawamura unable to see Miyuki's eyes. The former couldn't help but became more nervous when Miyuki slowly began to step his way towards the pitcher, decreasing the distance between them.

Sawamura, who was becoming more nervous and scared as the distance between them shortened, tried to back away from Miyuki but he found himself failed miserably. Forgetting that the bed was just behind him, Sawamura fell onto it once his knees reached the bed edge and he quickly found himself being trapped by hands of Miyuki on both sides of his head.

"W-W-Wait a minute, Miyuki!" a flustered and nervous Sawamura stuttered out. Being hovered over by Miyuki on his bed while being half-naked was something that shouldn't be happening right now. His instincts were telling him that such a situation was a bad idea, and he needed to do something about it immediately. But instead of strongly pushing Miyuki away, he shut his eyes tightly instead when Miyuki's face moved closer.

However, nothing came. Unlike his expectations, there seemed to be no movement from Miyuki, and after sensing nothing at all for several seconds, Sawamura slowly opened his eyes.

And he blinked and twitched upon the sight of his boyfriend not looking into his eyes or face, but on his bare chest instead. But what had puzzled him was not the fact that he was looking at his chest, but the mixed feelings he felt coming from Miyuki when he could see his eyes clearly through his goggles this time.

"Miyuki?" Sawamura could only softly called his name; the only response he got was the movement of his boyfriend's left hand. And what he didn't expect was the hand to be moving towards his chest, and then gently caressing and tracing the scar he had on the left side of his chest. The pitcher gasped softly and blinked again when he realized what Miyuki was doing.

_The scar I got from the operation…_ As he sensed the regrets and sadness behind those eyes of Miyuki as he stared and traced the scar, Sawamura remembered.

How much Miyuki had blamed himself for not being the one withstanding the rough play from Seikou at the home plate when it was his territory as a catcher after all.

How much Miyuki had blamed himself for not noticing anything wrong when Sawamura was clearly acting differently after that semi-final match.

How much Miyuki had blamed himself for being unable to reduce the pains and sufferings Sawamura had to go through during his recovery when all he could do was watch and pray.

How much Miyuki had blamed himself for not being able to bring Sawamura to Koshien when it was thanks to him that the team was able to win in the final match against Yakushi.

As Miyuki reminisced what Sawamura had to go through for the past several months, he suddenly shifted, startling the pitcher below him and gently hug him. He could almost feel his heart being torn apart as he rested his head on Sawamura's shoulder, hoping that the smell of his boyfriend and the feel of his skin were enough to comfort him.

_Do you have any idea how much I had wished, that it was me that is suffering all these right now?_

Sawamura, despite being the insensitive one usually, was able to detect the negativity behind those actions and hugged back. He knew how much Miyuki had regretted all these happenings and despite being the one injured, Sawamura felt that the ones suffered the most were Miyuki and his nakama instead of himself. Although he knew he was an idiot when it comes to reading the atmosphere, Sawamura could sense it all.

The regrets. The pain. The sadness. And the guilt.

But… _It was never anyone's fault._

And Sawamura meant to keep it that way.

"Kazuya," Sawamura whispered on his boyfriend's ear, startling Miyuki and managing to catch his attention which he know he could by calling his first name. He could feel the twitch from the catcher, and Sawamura shifted as well, pushing Miyuki lightly on his chest to make Miyuki face him. He then moved his hands to hold gently onto the both side of his boyfriend's face and smiled sincerely at him before he finally said what he had meant to say right from the beginning. "It's okay, Kazuya. It's not your fault."

And Miyuki's eyes widened in shock even more, when Sawamura gently kissed him on his lips.

And Miyuki, of course, gladly kissed back when he recovered from the shock, remembering his boyfriend's last words as he began to change the kiss into something more passionate.

_It's not your fault._

_It's okay._

Although it might take him some time to get over the pain and regrets, he knew he would get there.

Because Sawamura was going to help him make sure of that.

_****Line Break****_

They unexpectedly saw Kuramochi waiting for them at the dorm gate with a taxi already waiting, explaining to Miyuki and Sawamura that Suzuki had retired for the day and coach wanted to see the captain, thus waiting for them knowing the catcher would want to see Sawamura off.

"Ah, that's right," Sawamura said before he entered the cab. "Miyuki, I need your help."

Miyuki raised his eyebrow in confusion at his pitcher.

"It's about Suzuki's training menu," Sawamura explained, ignoring the frown shown on Miyuki's face at the mention of the first-year's name. "I'm thinking of reviewing and maybe changing it to suit his needs; but I'm not sure how. Think you can help me with that tonight?"

Miyuki looked at Sawamura with an obvious unhappiness, but soon gave up and sighed when he saw the determination behind those eyes. _This idiot is too nice for his own good._

"Fine, I'll help you with it tonight," Miyuki said in surrender. "But, on one condition."

Sawamura rolled his eyes on that. Leave it to Miyuki's twisted personality who refused to help him for free.

"Fine, what is it?" _This had better not involved any public display affections-_

"Let me pick you up from the training center today," Miyuki requested, interrupting the pitcher's thoughts.

"…What?" it took Sawamura some time to register the request, and he gave Miyuki an incredulous expression.

"Wait for me when your rehabilitation is done," Miyuki explained, mentally enjoying the whirl of confusion his pitcher was currently in. "I'll pick you up and we can return to the dorm together."

"Why do we have to do that?" Sawamura asked in bewilderment and nervousness. "W-We can see each other when I return! It won't be long since Boss will be giving me a ride!"

"Because," Miyuki said, and he moved in closer to his boyfriend to whisper in his ear. "Like this, I can spend more time with you."

Sawamura's eyes widened upon what he heard and quickly moved away from Miyuki, the blush on face hardened even more than before to the point that even his ears and neck were flushed red. Miyuki chuckled upon the sight. His boyfriend was just too much fun to tease!

"I-I-I got to go now!" Sawamura shouted before he quickly entered the cab, too embarrassed to stay anymore. However, before he could close the door, he was stopped by Miyuki's hand on it.

"Eijun," Miyuki called and smiled at his boyfriend. "I'll see you tonight, at the training center."

He could see Sawamura tightened his hold on the strap of his sling bag beside him, and a call of "Baka-Miyuki" before Sawamura closed the door shut and the cab finally left.

_****Line Break****_

Kuramochi almost smiled at the interaction of his classmate and his roommate right in front of him. Almost.

Thanks to the pitcher's presence, the atmosphere right now was not tense. In fact, it was way too comfortable for him right now.

When he saw that Sawamura was leaving, he decided that he had better made a move first before it got to a situation where it would only him and the captain alone. He didn't think he was ready for that yet. _Not especially after-_

"Kuramochi," the shortstop stopped in his steps when he heard his name from the catcher. "…You said the coach wanted to see me right?"

"… Yeah," Kuramochi replied, but unable to turn as there was a possibility he would have to look into his eyes if he did that. "That's all I came for. Now then, if you excuse me, I need to head back to practice." And with that, Kuramochi began to run, not giving Miyuki any chance in talking to him even further.

On the other hand, Miyuki frowned upon seeing the shortstop running away from him. He then looked at the ground, beginning to contemplate the situation between him and Kuramochi.

"_Because, we needed him. And you know that fully well as much as I do!"_

Miyuki sighed as he covered his face, knowing full well that his boyfriend would definitely punch him once he caught on what happened.

_****Line Break****_

Once again, Sawamura checked through everything in his rehabilitation menu and his checkout forms for the training center. After confirming again that all details on the forms were correct, he signed on them and smiled to the nurse in the counter as he passed the forms to her.

Finally, with a 'good work for the day' greeting from the nurse, he was dismissed. Sawamura then looked at the clock hanged on the wall behind the counter, indicating the time eight o'clock at night. It was then he could feel vibrations in his pocket, and he took out his mobile phone to check.

**Miyuki Kazuya: I'll be there in ten minutes. Wait for me. **

Sawamura looked at his mobile with an incredulous look. _Shit, he was serious?_

"_Because, like this, I can spend more time with you." _

Sawamura blushed upon remembering those words from his boyfriend this morning, and mentally cursed himself for acting like a blushing schoolgirl. He didn't think Miyuki was serious about coming to pick him up and go back together; he had thought he was just teasing him. The training center was an hour of bus ride away from the school and he didn't think the catcher would spend that amount of time in travelling just to come and see him.

However, despite feeling that all of these are unnatural and too good to be true, Sawamura couldn't help but felt happy at the thought that his boyfriend was coming, and blushed even harder again.

Just when you thought that Miyuki Kazuya was a twisted and nasty senior, he's actually such a gentle and considerate boyfriend.

And he suddenly felt that all these were too much for him to handle.

_Dammit, Miyuki Kazuya. You are one twisted and nasty pain in the neck._

"Excuse me," a man's voice suddenly called out behind him, prompting Sawamura to turn around to find out who had called. "If I'm not wrong, you're Sawamura Eijun, right?"

"Huh?" the pitcher had immediately found the source of the voice right in front of him, in the form of a middle-aged man wearing a jersey and black sports pants, hiding his face with a cap embroiled with a logo which Sawamura found it familiar. "Erm, yes I am… but how did you know my name?"

It was then the man removed his cap upon hearing the confirmation of identity, revealing his face to Sawamura. And the pitcher gasped upon seeing the face, because he immediately recognized the face as one he had seen months ago when he was recovering in the hospital.

"_A catcher that can't see the pains of his pitcher, has no right to play baseball at all."_

_No way… Miyuki's dad?!_

And another vibration from his mobile reminded him of the situation he was going to face.

_Shit. This is bad. This is very very bad._

**To be continued…**

A/N: I had a hard time deciding between an established relationship between Miyuki/Sawamura and Miyuki wooing Sawamura in this story. And… I decided on the former because knowing myself if I don't choose that option there's a chance I might suddenly make this an AllxSawamura fanfic. ^^|||

Thanks for all reviews in the last chapter and I hope you all will review again!

Thank you very much! =D

Regards

Ink-chan


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Daiya no A.

Warning: Shounen-Ai, OOC, abusive languages

**(MAJOR) SPOILERS** from the Manga chapters that are not yet English translated and released

Pairing: Miyuki Kazuya X Sawamura Eijun

A/N: First, Thank you all for all the great reviews! I really didn't expect this story to be this successful because I feel that my writing style is rather amateurish and forceful sometimes; I'm just writing as a hobby and for my own enjoyment. I didn't really have the confidence to write it at first, but you readers and supporters are just too awesome. Thank you all so much! Sorry that I didn't reply to every review, but I have to let you all know, I really appreciate every one of them and I'll do my best to make this story an enjoyable read to show my gratitude and appreciation.

Next, Thank you all for your patience for this chapter. Had a really hard time with this chapter, and it's probably going to be the most difficult chapter for me to write for this story. But warning, the plot is a bit dark and sinister, but nothing too dramatic I can guarantee you. But still, this is probably not going to be one of my best chapters. Just a warning because I emphasized again, I really, really had a hard time with this chapter.

Third, there is a longer note from me at the end of the chapter regarding some clarifications for this story and some terms used in this chapter.

Last, once again, I apologize for any mistakes made.

Without further ado, enjoy! =D

**It's Okay**

**Chapter 3**

_****Late December; approximately five months ago****_

A knock on the door interrupted them, and the door opened revealing the assistant manager of Seidou High School Baseball club.

"Ah, good afternoon! Takashima-san!" the high school girl in the ward greeted Takashima politely as she closed the door behind her.

"Good afternoon to you too, Wakana-chan, and Mrs. Sawamura," the assistant manager greeted back as she bowed down politely. And she bowed again when she noticed another presence in the room as well. "How is his condition, doctor?"

The man in the white coat looked up from his clipboard with a smile upon hearing Takashima calling him, and then placed it in the file holder at the bed frame in front to hang it there.

"His condition has improved greatly since the operation," the doctor explained. "His blood count and blood pressure is back to normal, there's no sign of mononucleosis or any blood diseases and his bleeding from his spleen has stopped. He seemed to have recovered from his pneumonia, and his X-ray has shown his lungs are recovering well. All there's left is his fractured knee and fingers. I already operated on his knee, so I'll need to continue to observe his knee before he can proceed with the rehabilitation. As for his fingers, since they are minor and stable fractures, I thought it would be better if I let his fingers recover on their own. His recovery is already in place so his condition is fine."

As soon as the doctor finished his explanation, sighs of relief could be heard in the room. Sawamura, who was lying on the bed while listening, sat up suddenly, slightly wincing in pain when he did it too quickly.

"Then," Sawamura ignored the slight pain in his chest and asked the doctor in hope. "Can I start playing soon? I want to pitch now!"

The smile on the doctor's face immediately disappeared, and Sawamura almost cowered upon the doctor's frown and stare.

"I wouldn't underestimate your injuries if I were you, kid," the doctor replied and he stared harder into Sawamura's eyes, which Sawamura could sense the seriousness behind. "You should have gone for treatment IMMEDIATELY when you got injured. You punctured your lungs, leading to your pneumonia and infection because you did not seek earlier treatment. You broke two of your fingers and severely fractured your left knee.

"And worse of all, you ruptured your spleen. You were lucky it was just a grade II splenic rupture, which can be cured with an operation; if any later you were brought to the hospital could have worsened the tear in your spleen that could have caused massive internal bleeding and I'll have no choice but to remove it. Do you know what does that mean?"

"You don't mean…" Sawamura said, fearing for the worse.

"It means no more baseball for the rest of your life."

Sawamura froze immediately, as the doctor's words began to sink in. A tightening sensation in his chest came and he could suddenly hear his heartbeat.

_No more… baseball?_

His whole body then went numb, ignoring whatever was happening around him. He suddenly felt breathing became difficult as tears were welling up in his eyes.

"But," the doctor quickly continued. "Your operation was a success; I've managed to repair your lungs and the rupture tears on your spleen to stop the bleeding, but there is still a need for me to continue to observe your recovery especially on your spleen and knee-"

"Nooooooooooooo!" Sawamura wailed out loud suddenly interrupting the doctor. "I don't wanna stop playing baseballllllllllllllll!"

Everyone in the room jumped upon Sawamura's cries; even the doctor winced at Sawamura's loud reaction. The doctor quickly looked between his mother and Takashima with a helpless look while Wakana tried to calm Sawamura down, convincing him that the doctor had said that the operation _was_ a success and he was all right already.

"I'm sorry, doctor," Mrs. Sawamura apologized to the doctor as soon as she heard her son's fading cries. "My son tends to overreact sometimes when he panics…"

"Ah, it seems so," the doctor said, and then he made a sound by clearing his throat, hoping to get some attention from his patient. "In any case, Sawamura-kun. What I am trying to say is; indeed you are recovering, but I'll need you to listen to my every instructions as your doctor if you ever want to start playing baseball again."

"Y-Yes," Sawamura said between his hiccups as he started calming down. The doctor sighed as he looked at his patient.

"Just make sure you listen to my every instructions, take your medicine and go for your rehabilitation regularly when you start and you _must_ report _whenever_ you feel discomfort in any of your old wounds, especially the left side of your chest and shoulder," the doctor emphasized strongly. "Don't be stubborn this time; if you had come for treatment earlier there was a chance there was no need for an operation and you would have recovered faster. So this time, no more hiding and keeping secrets, you understand, kid?"

"Understood!" Sawamura immediately responded by saluting to the doctor. "I'll follow every command given! The fate of my life lies in your hands now, Sensei!"

"…Overreact indeed…" And the doctor sighed; almost knocking his head on the wall upon hearing those words while Wakana began to giggle.

"In any case, absolutely NO sports until I say so. Besides, I doubt you will be able to play with that knee of yours," The doctor reminded Sawamura as he pointed towards his casted knee, ignoring the disappointed expression from Sawamura. "Even if I removed the cast and deemed your knee fully recovered; immobilization of your knee for months had greatly weakened your knee and thigh muscles so you will probably still be wheelchair-bounded or needing clutches for the first month after I removed your cast. Hence you still can't play baseball even if you want. Normally a fractured knee would take about four to six months to fully recover, so be patient, take your time to recover, kid, and you'll be fine."

The doctor paused, thinking that his patient would probably get annoyingly noisy first at the news before he continued. But surprisingly, Sawamura was silent throughout the whole time, even after the doctor had stopped his explanation and instruction. All other occupants looked at the patient, unable to look at his expression this time as he had lowered his head and used his fringe to cover his face. Silence still dominated the room for several seconds after that.

Everyone was beginning to get worried. A very quiet Sawamara was something everyone was not used to.

"Eijun?" Wakana whispered as she looked at her childhood friend worryingly.

"That means," Sawamura finally spoke again after his worrying silence. "I can't make it for Senbatsu…"

Upon hearing those words, the three female occupants in the room immediately blinked and froze for a second, before placing small smiles on their faces.

_Of course it's baseball again…_

Takashima then remembered that how much Sawamura had to endure during the final rounds of the fall tournament. Although she really wished that Sawamura had reported his injuries, it didn't change the fact that Seidou had managed to win their invitation to Senbatsu thanks to Sawamura's pitching from the forth inning onwards. However, for him to be unable to pitch during the Senbatsu…

_I wonder how the team will react to such news. But still…_

"I understand how you feel, Sawamura-kun," Takashima said as she placed her hand on the pitcher's shoulder. "But for the sake of the team, please concentrate on your recovery-"

"… SHUT UP!" a sudden yell came, causing all occupants in Sawamura's ward to jump and looked towards the source. The doctor softly cursed for the sudden noise in the hospital, before heading towards the door. Though slightly surprised by the slightly opened door (he was pretty certain that Takashima did close it), he opened it quickly, getting ready to lecture whoever had the guts to shout and make noise in the hospital under his patrol.

"Excuse me, sir. Please do not cause a scene here. You are disturbing my patient so please keep your volume down."

On the other hand, Takashima and Sawamura curiously had their sight following the doctor's movement, because the voice of the outburst was strangely familiar to both of them. And their curiosity was answered when the doctor opened the door, revealing their captain of Seidou baseball team standing at the door, with his back facing them.

"Miyuki-senpai?" Sawamura and Takashima both looked at Miyuki with concern and confusion, who slowly turned his head to look back at them, but his eyes cannot be seen due to the light reflection on his glasses.

"Miyuki-kun?" Takashima said as she moved closer towards the door. Although she couldn't see his eyes, from the outburst just now, she could tell that something had happened to the captain for him to be shouting carelessly outside the room. His silence and tightening of his clenched fist further proved her point and she became increasingly worried and concerned. Sawamura could only keep quiet, tensed by the atmosphere surrounding them.

"Long time no see, Takashima-san," Takashima gasped and jumped upon hearing her name from a new voice outside the room, and her eyes widened in shock as she realized who called her. It was then another man, who looked to be in his early fifties, wearing long black sports pants and jersey, and a black cap with an orange logo that seemed to be bearing the letters 'Y' and 'G' overlapping each other, began to walk past for everyone in the ward to be able to see him standing outside the threshold of the door.

Sawamura looked at the middle-aged man in confusion, wondering who he was. Wakana, on the other hand, gasped in surprise when she saw the man and covered her mouth with her hands. Sawamura raised his eyebrow, getting even more confused with his childhood friend's reaction.

"A-Ah, yes indeed," Sawamura turned to look at his assistant manager this time, who stuttered upon acknowledging the presence of the newcomer. She then bowed down for the third time today towards him. "It has been a long time, Mr. Miyuki Tatsunori."

And Sawamura blinked, twice, upon hearing that name.

_Huh? Miyuki? The same last name as senpai? Does this mean-_

"Thank you for taking care of my son all these time," the man said as he took off his cap and smiled, bowing back to the assistant manager. "He's quite a trouble, isn't he? Oh by the way, I've watched that final match of the fall tournament on TV. Congratulations on your victory."

"Ah, Thank you," Takashima replied, accepting the hand that was raised out by the older Miyuki and shook it. "It's all thanks to the team, and not to forget your son for leading the team well as the captain."

"The captain huh…" Miyuki's father softly whispered as he looked at his son. He was silent for a moment before suddenly he began to laugh loudly, earning a glare from the doctor. "Indeed it was a great game I would say, but sorry to say that I don't think my son deserves such praises from you or anyone. He's still a hundred years too early for me to think he played well in that game.

"Not especially when the price of that victory comes with the downfall of one of the pitchers under his charge eh?" Miyuki's father said with a smile on his face, which anyone could immediately notice the sarcasms behind.

Upon hearing those words, Takashima gasped and immediately noticed the flinch from the teenage Miyuki. Sawamura gaped in shock when he registered what the older Miyuki had said in front of him and his catcher.

_Wait a minute. That's-_

"Well then," Miyuki's father said as he put his cap back on. "I need to get going if not I'm going to be late for my team's training."

"Ah, yes," Takashima said as she saw the middle-aged man began to walk. "Thank you very much and I'll see you again."

"Ah, that's right," Miyuki's father suddenly stopped and turned to look at his son, who was currently facing the other end of the hospital corridor, refusing the meet his eyes. "If you think that getting into Senbatsu is going to help you in your plans to go into pro, you're deadly wrong, my son. Like I said, you're hundred years too early to think you're good enough to go pro; the mistake you did this time is too costly for your own good."

_Mistake? What mistake? Miyuki-senpai did a great job! Without him, I'm-_

"And that mistake was not the first time," Miyuki could only stay silent as he heard his father's words, while Takashima immediately noticed the further tightening of the captain's fist. His father then turned again to continue walking before he continued. "I'll say it again, Kazuya.

"A catcher that can't see the pains of his pitcher, has no right to play baseball at all."

_****Approximately five months later, present time****_

"From that dumb expression on your face," Miyuki Tatsunori said as he smirked upon looking at the gaping face from the young pitcher. "You remembered me."

Sawamura twitched in realization upon those words.

"Just like what I heard. You really do look like an idiot."

And Sawamura twitched again. However, as the fact that those words were coming out from the mouth of Miyuki's father began to finally sink into his brain, he began to gape and shiver. The middle-aged man could only raised his eyebrow in confusion on the pitcher's reaction.

"Hello?" Mr. Miyuki said as he waved his hand in front of Sawamura's face, hoping to get his attention. "Hello, Sawamura Eijun. Are you there?"

_If he's the professional manager of a professional baseball team, it means, he's-_

"Hello?" and he saw it. The hands bigger than Miyuki Kazuya's right in front of his face as he came out from his own inner world. And when he finally realized just _who_ was in front of him, he did something that the poor middle-aged man did not expect at all.

Sawamura quickly lowered himself to the ground to bow his body and head towards Miyuki's father.

"G-Good evening! Daimyo-sama!" Sawamura shouted, causing everyone surrounding them to turn and stare at them.

"Daimyo?" Miyuki's father twitched in puzzlement and slight irritation as he heard what Sawamura had called him. "Who are you calling 'Daimyo'?"

"And good work for the day! Daimyo-sama!"

"Oi," Miyuki's father twitched again, irritation increasingly rising. He rubbed the area between his squeezed eyebrows, hoping to relieve himself. "Stop calling me 'Daimyo-sama'. And will you please stand up? It's extremely embarrassing for me to be seen like this…"

"Ah no! I don't think I deserve such kindness!"

"… Stand up," the middle-aged man could only sighed and said, hoping it would be the right choice of words. "This is an order."

"Ah yes! Unworthy Sawamura is extremely grateful for your kindness!" Sawamura continued shouting as he quickly stand up and saluted towards the middle-aged man. Miyuki's father only continued to stare at him after wards, as if studying him carefully. He then moved up closer to stare at his face, thumb placing under chin as he continued studying Sawamura. The pitcher froze in reaction upon the closeness and he began to realize something upon seeing the middle-aged man up close.

_His facial and body expression really reminds me of Miyuki… Makes me realize that they are really father and son…_ _They could almost look identical if only his father wear spectacles…_

As Sawamura continued his observations of Miyuki's father, he suddenly heard a purposely loud sigh from the middle-aged man as he stood up straight, causing the pitcher to look up in confusion.

"You indeed are an interesting kid, but," the older Miyuki said as he crossed his arms and looked at the pitcher with a contemplating look. "I wonder how does my son put up with you."

"Huh?"

"I saw your pitching before on TV you know," Miyuki's father said as he closed his eyes. "Although your pitches were interesting and fast, they were really wild and I can tell immediately that you're still a novice at ball control."

And Sawamura immediately flinched and jerked back in reaction.

"Am I right?" the middle-aged man said as he opened his eyes and looked at Sawamura with the studying stare again.

As the saying goes, like father, like son. Sawamura realized now that this man really was similar to his son in a lot of ways; and he couldn't say anything back for his own defense. Especially when what he said was not incorrect. Those comments also made him remembered who the man was in front of him, as he had learned from his assistant manager on that fateful day in the hospital five months ago.

"_That man you've seen just now, which you now have known to be Miyuki-kun's father, is Miyuki Tatsunori, the head coach and manager of one of Japan's professional baseball league teams, the Yomiuri Giants. In terms of game sense, analytical ability and strength as a baseball player, I would dare say he's way above several levels than that of Miyuki-kun. Miyuki-kun's amazing talent for baseball, most probably came from this man, who was once an amazing player in the history of Japan baseball."_

However, Sawamura was beginning to think that Miyuki Kazuya was alike with his father MORE than just his baseball talents. And this was where Sawamura was beginning to realize where his captain's bad personality came from…

"Although…" father Miyuki spoke again as Sawamura was in his own thoughts. "I must also wonder how did you put up with my son?"

"Huh?"

"Just like you have your flaws, I'm sure that son of mine has his own flaws as well," He then looked at the pitcher with a serious frown, which caused the pitcher to freeze and slightly gasp upon seeing the seriousness behind those eyes. "And that has cost you quite greatly isn't it?"

"Huh?" Sawamura said again in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I know about your injuries. I overheard the conversation you had with your doctor five months ago; and those were pretty harsh and serious injuries… and I also know how you should have sought treatment the minute when you got injured. Tell me, how come anyone didn't notice? You even managed to fool Kazuya."

"Ah, well, that's…" The situation suddenly became slightly awkward for Sawamura especially when the topic came about his catcher.

"Or is it because your team is close to victory that everyone had ignored the fact that you could have been injured? Especially since your ace is already out… they can't afford to lose another pitcher in the regular-lineup, isn't it?"

It was then Sawamura looked at the man incredulously as he began to register in his mind what the man was trying to imply.

"Or maybe because your team was slow huh? But I had expected more. Especially from that foolish son of mine."

_W-What are you-_

"I've seen every match of his you know. Although you and the other pitchers might think that it's your fault that you can't win the final match against Inashiro Industrial in last year's summer regional tournament; I think the fault lies with Kazuya. Rushing to secure a victory without considering the pressure you had to go through; that was entirely his mistake as the catcher. Things would probably be different if he had called for a timeout to make you calm down, don't you think? You were obviously becoming increasingly pressurized the more outs you got. Kazuya should have seen that coming."

_No, that's-_

"And that match against Ugumori. I could tell almost immediately that your ace was injured. The person closest to him, which is that idiotic son of mine, seemed to have failed again by not noticing anything."

_No, you're wrong! That's something that no one had-_

"And this time, that semi-final match of last year's fall tournament. I can't believe that Kazuya didn't even suspect anything from that trauma you received. And he even allowed you to continue playing the next day? What could he and the coach be thinking? It would have cost you your life or your whole baseball career!"

_Wait a minute! That's-_

"It's true that his playing abilities have improved, but he has failed in the most basic and essential skill as a catcher. Tell me, how did he manage to gain the trust of his members on the field? How did he manage to gain the trust of his coach to the point that he actually appointed him as the captain?

"Is it because your coach is the same as Kazuya, obsessing with the results and victories to the point they could ignore the well being of their players? Sometimes it really is a wonder to me how your team managed to get this far, especially under his leadership? If it were me," Miyuki's father finally paused, bending down once more to move closer to Sawamura's face, looking straight into his eyes with seriousness and determination. "I'll never be able to trust someone like him as a team player. And I'm saying this as a professional baseball manager. Kazuya has undoubtedly failed as a catcher and a baseball player."

Sawamura's eyes widened and his body froze in shock upon hearing those words. These are the words coming from the father of his catcher and captain?

The catcher who had been working hard with him to improve his pitches and giving him advice whenever he needed?

The captain who had been trying hard to improve himself as a leader and been trying hard to understand and look out for every member in the team?

The catcher who had been trying hard to lead his pitchers well in every game?

The captain who had been trying hard to lead the team to victory?

The catcher and the captain who had been trying hard to carry all burdens of being the core of the defense, offensive batter and the core of the team, even if it meant he had to carry them on his own?

It's true that the professional coach of one of the major Japanese baseball league teams may be able to say these after watching every game of Seidou…

_But this man had no idea how much effort and hard work Miyuki had to put in to make sure victory was within our reach in every game! For someone who didn't see his hard work during our training sessions, you're-_

"You're wrong!" Sawamura's sudden outburst once again, caused everyone in their surroundings to look at them. Miyuki's father, on the other hand, jumped at the reaction he got and looked at the pitcher incredulously.

"It's true that Miyuki is self-centered, had a nasty personality that would made anyone hesitant to trust him wholeheartedly as a person," Sawamura shouted, failing to realize the commotion he was actually causing. "But! His skills as a player leaves no room for doubt at all among all the team members and everyone in the team knows how much he had work hard for the team to achieve this far! He's someone we are all able to trust him fully in the field and I believe everyone was able to trust and follow him that we are able to come this far!

"Also, even though his personality is the worse, but as the captain he's been doing a great job in looking out for everyone in the team! He tried to talk and give advice to those whoever was in a slump anytime, and even though he's not used to it, he tries very hard to make everyone in the team feel that they are always part of Seidou's baseball, no matter you are in the first string or not! He's always been trying hard to get stronger together with the whole team and everyone acknowledges him as a captain whole heartedly because they know how much effort Miyuki has put in _for _the team!

"As for me, no matter how selfish or irritating Miyuki is, or no matter that most of the time I had absolutely no idea at all what was going through that twisted mind of his, I know I can trust him one hundred percent. It was all thanks to Miyuki that I was here in Tokyo, here in Seidou in the first place! It was all thanks to Miyuki that I decided to come here and work hard in improving my pitching. It's because Miyuki has always been helping me all these times that I was able to achieve what I had today! To me Miyuki has always been one of the most awesome players I've seen in my entire life and it has always been my goal to be acknowledged by him as a pitcher and as one of his team members and partner!

"So don't go selfishly give your own son a failing grade in his baseball skills when you have no idea what he had to go through in order to achieve what he has today! As long as I'm here with Miyuki as his battery partner, there's no way I'm allowing you to insult him as a catcher and a captain, because I've NEVER once regretted knowing him and forming a battery with him in my entire life!"

Sawamura panted as he finished, ignoring the nurse at the counter that was trying to whisper to him to keep his volume down in the training center. However, what Miyuki's father saw in front of him was a boy panting, with a pair of eyes slightly glaring at him with fearless determination. There was no slight hint of hesitation and doubt in those words he was shouting to him, and there was no sign of backing down or taking back those words at all. Probably for a long time, he could sense such a determination and honesty behind those eyes of a baseball player.

And Miyuki Tatsunori couldn't help but smiled at the sight.

"Hoh?" Miyuki's father said as he crossed his arms and gave the studying look at the pitcher again. "So you do trust Kazuya a whole damn lot, do you?"

"Yes!" Sawamura shouted in response to the question and the smirk he saw on the manager's face.

"Interesting…" and Sawamura almost jumped upon looking at a sincere smile from Miyuki's father. "So Kazuya is really trusted a lot by his team mates huh…"

Sawamura could only gaped at the middle-aged man with puzzlement. That smile was something he didn't think the man would have when just a minute ago he was insulting his own son. He could only freeze there, not knowing what he should say at the smile on his face. Just like he had with his captain, he had no idea what the professional manager in front of him was thinking in that mind of his. The people surrounding also began to disperse, seeing the silence going on between them now.

But the silence was soon broken with Sawamura meeting yet another surprise.

"Tell me something, kid," Miyuki's father suddenly said, causing Sawamura to twitch in surprise.

"Huh?"

"Is high school baseball fun?" Sawamura blinked at the question, but answered nevertheless.

"Ya," Sawamura answered, a smiled slowly forming in his face as he began to remember the past one year he spent in Seidou's baseball team. The training times, the summer camp, the summer regional tournament, the training and the practice games during summer break, the fall tournament, the senbatsu and the training with the new first year when school starts. His grin became wider and wider as he remembered the time he spent training with his teammates and his boyfriend. "Ya, it was really fun!"

Miyuki's father could almost laugh heartily at the wide smile shown by the pitcher.

"Do you have plans to go into the professional league with you graduate?"

"Hmm?" Sawamura was surprised again at the question. But he answered while scratching his head in slight embarrassment. "Well, it's probably the only thing I know how to do in my whole life…"

"Hoh?" the middle-aged manager commented in response. "I wonder… if you can still stay the same and said the same words when you become a pro huh?"

"Huh?" Sawamura looked at the manager in confusion as he responded.

"'Baseball is fun', 'I want to play baseball', 'I want to do something for the team', 'I want to continue to stay with this team', these are the words spoken by many players I've seen before or when they first started their career in the professional Japanese baseball. However, Japan baseball is not as simple as you thought."

The manager paused, then turned to look towards somewhere which Sawamura followed, realized that he is looking towards a light source came from a slightly opened door.

"In the professional baseball world, the environment is a lot different in high school baseball where you played as a school sports activity. When you entered the professional league, you play baseball as if it is your life. You play as if your life depends on it. And the next thing you knew, it becomes the world where only the strongest will survive."

Sawamura could only turn and look at the manager from the slightly opened door, confusion apparent in his expression.

"The reason why I am here today," the manager explained as he raised his hand to hold onto his cap to move it down to cover his eyes. "Is because one of my top players had got himself an injured spinal cord and is now having his rehabilitation."

"Eh?" Sawamura became more confused as Miyuki's father explained. _What is he trying to say to me?_

"Apparently," and Sawamura realized the manager became more stiffened and he had tightened his hold onto his cap. "He was hit by a dead ball during our first match of the current season league."

_I still don't understand. Just what are you trying to say?_

"And after thorough investigation, it was found out that the pitcher of the opposing team was paid by the members of another team to hit him with the baseball and make sure he is unable to play anymore during the season league."

"What?!" Sawamura gasped in shock upon the news, before looking back at the slightly opened door again. In the silence, he could vaguely hear the counting of numbers and panting by someone coming from that room.

"Just like I said, when you entered the pro league, you will be playing baseball as if it is your life and only the strongest survive. But, that is where you realize how much people are willing to do in order to make sure they stay alive. Corruption, bribery and sabotage become common. And results become everything and the most important thing to all players because your teammates or the team's owner can abandon or fire you anytime when you are unable to produce the results desired.

Japanese baseball is not as nice and clean as you think," the professional manager paused to look into the eyes of the shocked pitcher with seriousness. "There is no idealism or honor there. It's the place where you can be easily overwhelmed and swayed into the darkness of the baseball world. The only things you will find there are pride, greed, ambition and money. This is the cruel reality of Japanese baseball."

Sawamura could only gape in shock upon hearing those words, and he began to realize that somewhere, deep down, he felt he was already swallowed in by those words and fear was beginning to creep up his spine.

_No way… this kind of baseball is wrong, but…_

"You think it's wrong, isn't it?" Sawamura gasped in surprise as his thoughts were interrupted, and he looked at Miyuki's father, feeling slightly restless. "Well, I admit it is wrong. Especially when ideally you were supposed to be playing sports with fun and honor. But sometimes, things don't just go by your way. Kazuya is probably my living example for that."

"Huh?" Sawamura blinked in surprise, all previous thoughts about the darkness of the professional Japanese baseball world forgotten at the mention of his boyfriend's name. "What do you mean?"

"The first time Kazuya watched baseball on TV," Miyuki's father answered Sawamura as he began to relax his stiffened shoulders. "I remembered how awed he was when he saw our Japanese national team won the world classic championship finals. He immediately had me teach him how to play baseball, and out of impulse I bought him his first baseball glove and the next thing I knew I started playing catch with him whenever I'm free from trainings or matches. Kazuya's talent for baseball was amazing, and I could tell the more he played, the more he had fallen in love with baseball."

He probably didn't realize that he had loosened the hold he had on his cap as he remembered the old times he had with his son.

And Sawamura could notice the smile the middle-aged man was having as he talked about the past he had with Kazuya. However, he was not prepared for the frown that suddenly appeared on his face.

"But, the professional baseball world I've mentioned, was definitely not the right and healthy environment for a child to grow up in, isn't it?

"Eh?" Sawamura slightly jumped when he was asked the question, indicating that he wasn't prepared for it.

"One of my greatest mistake I've made in my life, was probably that due to my career, I've had neglected my family for a long time, which caused my wife to decide to leave me when Kazuya was only nine years old."

"What?" Sawamura said in shock, for it was the first time he had heard such things about Kazuya.

"And another one of my greatest mistake, was when I brought Kazuya along with me to see the world of professional baseball," Sawamura gasped lightly upon seeing the tired expression on the manager's face and he soon found himself immersed in the words of Miyuki's father. "Just like in my years as a professional manager where I've seen many scenes of corruption within players, Kazuya also had his fair share of seeing the darkness behind Japanese baseball. There were a few times in order to watch over him, I'd no choice but to bring him along whenever I had practice with my team. It was probably at those times that Kazuya had seen… many things that weren't the best times for a child to see.

"And, before I could catch up with what was going on with my son, it was too late for me to realize that my son had learned not to trust and open up to others and was willing to sacrifice anything to win due to his obsession with results and victories, and the trust issues he had become worse when he entered junior high, where the seniors learned not to trust him due to that attitude he has on the field."

"B-But," Sawamura finally spoke, determined to defend his captain this time. "Things are different in Seidou! Can't you tell? Everyone has already learned to trust Miyuki as the catcher and captain!"

"It's true that Kazuya' trust issues have been improving since he entered high school, but it still doesn't change the fact that he is still lacking a lot as player," Miyuki's father said as he crossed his arms and looked back at the pitcher, eyes bearing the same determination as he had. "Things are going to be more difficult if that foolish son of mine still wants to aim to enter the pro league once he graduates."

"But that's not fair! Miyuki was one of our best players already! Is that really a need to be so hard on him?"

"Well, this is a challenge he made it himself, so I can't see why not make things more difficult for him."

"Huh?!" Sawamura screamed in confusion, incredulous towards the new information given to him.

"Like I mentioned, due to my career, I've neglected my family for a long time, and Kazuya, probably even till now, still blames me for the abandonment of his mother on us," the manager explained as he closed his eyes and sighed, thinking back to the past. "And finally one day, when Kazuya thought that he had enough of me neglecting him, he finally challenged me."

"_Baseball, baseball. Is baseball the only thing you had in your eyes and mind? When are you going to properly look at ME? Your SON?!"_

"…_It would be your best interest to keep quiet, Kazuya. I'm too tired to argue with you on such issues. And as a baseball player yourself, do you really think you should be saying all these to me?"_

"_Then at least come and watch ME play instead of watching over those dishonest and cheating geezer players of yours!"_

"_Are you serious? Of course I can't do that! What makes you think I'll waste my time watching a bunch of kids playing when I had a team of professional players to look over?"_

"… _So you're saying you'll come and see me play if I play in the professional league?"_

"…_Really, Kazuya? Don't joke around with me. With your skills right now, there's no way you can make it to the major leagues in Japan. Don't waste your time and give up on baseball."_

"_NO WAY! There's no way I'm giving up! I'm going to grow up, become stronger, stronger to the point you have NO choice but to accept and acknowledge me!"_

"…_Is that a challenge? Then come and prove it to me if you think you can do it!"_

"_I can, and I will!"_

"…Is that supposed to be some sort of pressure or encouragement for your son?" Sawamura gaped, finding himself unable to comprehend the information that was just shared by the father.

"…Who knows? I might have said some things on a whim too you know."

"I didn't think that you actually are encouraging Miyuki to become a professional," Sawamura said when he realized the irony behind those words of the manager. "Even though you said that the professional baseball world is a cruel environment."

"Indeed, it is a harsh world to survive. However, just as I've seen many of its dark side, I've always seen many cases of the players that managed to succeed through sheer hard work and was able to play baseball again for their fun and enjoyment," and once again, he had a small smile on his face as he explained. "And this is something I realized during his junior high school days that it is the most essential thing that Kazuya lacked, and it is something he didn't attained in his junior high school, and he could never attained it when he enters the major leagues. So his high school days became my only hope."

"…You… mean… to say," Sawamura said things slowly this time, as though he wanted to take his time and understand and confirm the information he just received. "That you actually hoped that Miyuki would learn how to trust people and have fun in baseball again when he entered high school?"

"…Who knows?" And father Miyuki irritatingly looked away as he said that in a mocking tone.

"Why didn't you tell Miyuki your intentions then?" Sawamura asked, still incredulous towards the attitude and explanations he heard from the father.

"…I had thought this is something that that idiotic son of mine should find out on this own. Some things are better understood through experiences instead of words after all."

And sometimes, Sawamura really wished that he could give the slap he learned from his grandfather to both the annoying father and son.

_I understand your intentions, but still_,

"I feel that," Sawamura said as he once again looked into the eyes of the middle-aged man with determination and honesty. "Some things need to be put into words for them to be understood."

_God, makes me really wonder, who is worse. The father or son?_

But despite that thought, he wasn't prepared for the sudden smile by the manager.

"…You really are an interesting kid," Miyuki's father commented as he suddenly ruffled Sawamura's hair, causing Sawamura to jump in surprise at the gesture. However, he didn't stop him despite feeling awkward at the action from his boyfriend's father.

However, the awkwardness managed to come to a stop, when suddenly there was another hand catching and gripping tightly onto the wrist of the middle-aged manager. The action of a third party came as a shock towards the pitcher and the manager, which caused both of them to immediately looked up to see who it was that suddenly interrupted them.

And to Sawamura's horror, Miyuki Kazuya was standing beside him, sending something like a killing glare to his father.

**To be continued…**

This chapter I would say, it's a gamble for me. It's either you like it or hate it. Too dark and sinister for you? Well, it could be. BUT, before I go into hiding and avoid all the trash throwing on me, first, Thank you all for reading!

Ok! I need to go hide in one corner now before anyone decides to send someone to assassinate me! XO

Do leave behind a review or comments if possible ok? Would really like to hear what do you think of this chapter. Had a bit of hard time trying to grasp the characters in this chapter and the feelings behind. Not easy writing… and the next thing I knew I began to think I don't know what I'm writing anymore… ^^|||

Oh, and some important clarifications and terms to take note if you don't understand!

Do read through them: -  
**The play that caused Sawamura's injuries  
**As for those of you who had read the raw manga and spoilers know, in the actual canon, the one that got injured in the match against Seikou is Miyuki, but in this story the one that got injured is Sawamura instead due to a throwing error done by Asou (left fielder), as explained by the previous chapter. However, I only know that my scenario is possible because I'm a softball player (a catcher as well! Haha) where if there's a case that a catcher has to leave the home plate the pitcher is supposed to do base cover, because if the catcher allow the ball to fly past behind the home plate (passed ball), the opponent runner will be allowed a free base advance. However, I'm not sure does the same rule is applicable in baseball. I had assumed that the fielding rules of softball and baseball are the same (except there's no pick-off on runners on bases). So if you find any problem or anything questionable about the play that caused Sawamura's injuries in the previous chapter, feel free to PM me about it. I'll review and edit the whole scene if I need to.

**Suzuki Natsuki  
**- OC  
As I mentioned, which I make sure it is stated very clearly, that Suzuki is an original character (OC) in my story. He's going to be the only one. So no worries if you are worried that you have missed out a lot or a character in the actual canon. I've made the OC alert quite obvious because I know that there are people out there that are not comfortable with reading fanfics with OCs.

**Miyuki's father (this is going to be long)  
**- Canon  
In the actual canon, Miyuki's father is NOT revealed. In fact, NOTHIING is revealed about his background at all; not even in the side chapter on Miyuki's past in his middle school days. However, there is a scene in the manga that is hinting and suggesting that Miyuki may not have a good relationship or doesn't get along well with his family. I have no idea if Terajima-sensei has any plan regarding this; thus whatever I have written here about his father is purely something I have made up for this story. I could be totally off the mark, so hopefully my story, which included Miyuki's father, will not cause any misunderstandings you readers know about the canon story, especially since some of you probably only watch the anime or read the English translated chapters only.

- Name: Miyuki Tatsunori  
His name is inspired by the name of the current manager of the Yomiuri Giants, Hara Tatsunori. The Yomiuri Giants (YG) is currently one of the top Professional Baseball teams in Tokyo. Its base is at Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan and was the team of Sawamura Eiji (1917-1944), one of the best pro pitchers in the history of Japan Baseball. In 2009, Hara Tatsunori also led the Japan national baseball team to victory in the final match of the 2009 World Baseball Classic. All these information can be found in Wikipedia or you can just Google search: Yomiuri Giants

- Character in story  
I had a really, really hard time trying to portray his father here, even though I was the one that made him up. It was really very hard for me to try to portray him as a caring father that secretly watches over his son but in probably the wrong way, but at the same time a really strict father that always make things difficult for his son and has high expectations for him. He makes sure that his son learns that he must work hard in order to gain his father's trust and acknowledgement and will only teach him the important things in the hard way but actually, the father has always been waiting for his son to be successful through his own sheer hard work and efforts. However, his methods seem to be too harsh and always cause misunderstanding between him and Kazuya all the time. Does it make sense? (lol)

- Daimyo  
Daimyo (lord) is the term for the most powerful ancient feudal lords in Japan from the 10th century to the early 19th century. In terms of state power, its rank is above the shogun (general) but in terms of the actual political/military strength the shogun is considered to be more superior. I thought for Sawamura to be calling Miyuki's father the Daimyo indicates Sawamura's acknowledgement that Miyuki's father is a top superior, but as Sawamura is not under his coaching or management so Daimyo is enough to indicate the respect he has for him.

**Some quotes inspired: -  
**'Japanese baseball is not as nice and clean as you think. There is no idealism and honor there. The only thing there, is money.' – Tokuchi Toua (One Outs, Volume 15, Chapter 124)  
_If you haven't watched this anime/manga, give it a try. Compared with DnA, the theme is more dark and sinister, but give it a try if you like baseball anime and bad guy vs. bad guy themes. Several plot twists were really good to me and it gives you a glimpse of the other side of Japanese baseball._

Okay, that's all I have for clarifications for now. Feel free to PM me or state in the reviews if you have any doubts.

The next chapter should be up soon! Because I had initially planned for this and the next one to be the same one chapter, but decided to split into two for some reasons. In the meantime, once again, review, review, and review! =D

Regards,  
Ink-chan


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Daiya no A.

Warning: Shounen-Ai, OOC, abusive languages

**(MAJOR) SPOILERS** from the Manga chapters that are not yet English translated and released

Pairing: Miyuki Kazuya X Sawamura Eijun

A/N: Once again, thanks for all the patience for waiting for this chapter. Sorry was late because I started watching Haikyuu! and got hooked up on it (XD) (^.^|||)

And most importantly, thank you very much for all the reviews for the previous chapter; I didn't think it deserves the positive response received; but hopefully this chapter will make up for it =)

Without further ado, enjoy~!

Note: 'Miyuki' here will be referring to Miyuki Kazuya. Any mention of his father I'll at least state him as 'Miyuki's father'. Hopefully there will be no confusion =)

**It's Okay**

**Chapter 4**

"_You don't mean…"_

"_It means no more baseball for the rest of your life."_

_Upon hearing those words, he widened his eyes and froze, absorbing in the information the doctor just shared. He stood there in shock, his breathing and heartbeat stopped and his lungs seemed to decide to shrink at that moment. His hands had stopped opening the door of the ward._

_No more baseball… for Sawamura?_

_No… It can't be…_

_As those thoughts lingered in his mind, he felt the world spinning, and nothing mattered anymore. He removed his hand from the doorknob and stepped back, finding himself unable to breathe even though he wanted to. It was then he could feel his stomach beginning to do somersaults with his lunch and he quickly covered his mouth and stomach, hoping it would make him feel better. _

"_Nooooooooooooo! I don't wanna stop playing baseballllllllllllllll!"_

_Only Sawamura's voice mattered now. He looked through the opening of the door, and saw the pitcher crying. For some reason, the sight of him crying pained his heart more than it should be. He clenched his fist at his chest, feeling the quickening heartbeat. But in contrast, he seemed to have stopped breathing. So how could his heart beat in inverse proportion to his breathing rate?_

"_And that's, the consequence of your blunder and oversight."_

_He gasped upon hearing those words. Just when he thought only Sawamura's voice mattered, another voice suddenly just infiltrated his inner world._

"_If you had come for treatment earlier there was a chance there was no need for an operation and you would have recovered faster."_

_Why? Why didn't you seek for help faster? _

"_Hoh? It seems that the kid is recovering. But, the situation could have been a lot better if you had noticed and done something about it. For everything to become like this, this is entirely your fault."_

_Why? Why didn't you say anything when it happened?_

"_That means, I can't make it for Senbatsu…"_

_Why? Why didn't anyone notice that something was wrong?_

"_And now the poor kid and the team are going to suffer for it. Shouldn't you have been able to prevent this, as the team's main catcher and captain?"_

_Why? Why didn't he notice it?_

"_I told you before when you decided to become a catcher, didn't I?"_

_Why? Why didn't he do anything? Just like last time in the finals of the summer tournament?_

"_A catcher that can't see the pains of his pitcher, has no right to play baseball at all."_

_No… That's… He didn't want this to happen… So why…_

"_As always, you have failed me again, Kazuya."_

_Please, for someone like you who didn't know anything._

"…_SHUT UP!"_

_Why? Why did he fail Sawamura? Again?_

_****Line Break****_

If looks could kill, how many times would you be dead already?

If looks could kill, there was no doubt about the death of Miyuki Tatsunori by his own son, Miyuki Kazuya.

"M-Miyuki?" Sawamura stuttered as he saw his boyfriend standing beside him, tightly grabbing on to his father wrist whose hand was above Sawamura's head, while glaring hard on his father.

And he couldn't help but gulped in fear and nervousness upon seeing the glaring contest between the father and son. For the first time in life, he really hated silence.

"Hoh?" Miyuki's father suddenly spoke after several seconds of silence, facing his son with a smirk which sent a chilling sensation down Sawamura's spine. But Miyuki seemed to be unmoved by it. "You're pretty protective of this boy, aren't you?"

Sawamura was pretty glad that Miyuki didn't respond back; his gut feeling was telling him the situation would grow worse if he did.

But he was definitely not prepared for Miyuki to suddenly release the hold he had on his father's wrist, before changing his grip onto his boyfriend's instead and started pulling him away.

"Hey, wait, Miyuki!" Sawamura could only follow his captain's lead as he was being pulled away. However, Miyuki seems to have no intention of stopping and answering him. The pitcher could only look and follow, silenced by the anger and anxiety aura from the catcher.

"So, Kazuya," Miyuki's father suddenly said as the couple began to walk away quickly. "How have you been doing?"

But his son did not seem to have any intention of answering him as he continued dragging Sawamura away. The professional manager twitched in annoyance on the rudeness received. "Oi, oi. Don't ignore me-"

"I've got nothing to say to a liar," Miyuki quickly said as he continued walking in increasing acceleration towards the exit of the training center, refusing to meet the eyes of his father. Sawamura, on the other hand, quickly took a glance behind to see Miyuki's father making no attempt to chase his son but only looking at them quietly with a neutral face, before finding himself outside the training center with his boyfriend. But Miyuki still made no attempt to stop or slow down at all even when the training center seemed to be out of their sight.

"H-Hey, Miyuki," Sawamura tried to call out to the catcher when they reached a bridge where cars are passing by them every few minutes. They had walked for quite a while. "Miyuki? Hey, are you listening?"

But Miyuki didn't seem to hear his voice. Either that, or he was ignoring him on purpose.

"Hey, Miyuki," Sawamura tried again. He was beginning to get annoyed with Miyuki's ignorance to his calling. "Miyuki! Will you stop and listen to me? I don't see the need to get this angry."

And those words seemed to finally reach Miyuki; either that or Miyuki finally decided to respond to his boyfriend. But Sawamura couldn't help but still cower under the intense stare he received when the catcher finally stopped and turned to face him.

"M-Miyuki?"

"… Don't believe him," Miyuki said softly, earning a confused response from Sawamura. "I said, DON'T believe in whatever that man said."

Unable to control his emotions, Miyuki suddenly tightened his hold on Sawamura wrist even further, ignoring his boyfriend's cries of hurt and protest and roughly pulled him closer to stare directly into Sawamura's eyes again. The pitcher gasped and felt an unwelcoming sensation chilling down his spine when he realized the closeness between their faces and sensed the anger and intensity behind those eyes of his boyfriend.

"Don't EVER believe whatever that man said," Miyuki growled with an extreme warning tone. "You must NEVER believe whatever he said from now on; whatever he told you just now was nothing but lies. So don't you dare believe him."

"Lies?" Sawamura blinked upon taking in the words from Miyuki. _Are you serious? _

"Whatever he said just now are all lies!" Miyuki began to unknowingly shout; it didn't really matter since there was no one else walking on the bridge and no car would just stop there to check what two teenagers were doing there. "He said something about my mother abandoning us, didn't he? Wrong! My mother didn't abandon us! He's the one that abandoned my mother and me! He was the one that refused to come and meet us when my mother had given him the last chance to stop us before we left to live with my maternal grandparents in Osaka! He's the one that decided to divorce my mother and the only reason why I am here with him is because the stupid law put me into his custody!

"And his top pitcher was hit by a dead ball because of a case of bribery? Bullshit! If he's such a capable professional manager like he said he was, he probably should have prevented that from happening! He thinks he's as clean as a whistle! Wrong! He's just as dirty as his cheating geezers players of his! He probably was involved in that dead ball too!

"And since when I've played catch with him? He NEVER plays with me! To him, even playing with his own kid is a waste of time to him!

"So, right now, I am telling you this very clearly," Miyuki this time used both hands to grab the upper arms of Sawamura as he said with eyes full of anger and determination. "Don't you ever, EVER listen and believe in his words! That man was just toying with you, right from the beginning! So forget about everything he said just now, do you understand?" Miyuki pulled Sawamura even closer as he said the last sentence, growling in a menacing tone that no one could refuse him.

And Sawamura could do nothing but nodded at Miyuki's words as the catcher began catching his breathe after releasing all his pent up frustrations and anger behind those words of his.

But still, Sawamura still wondered to himself. _Is EVERYTHING he said really a lie?_

After getting the nod he needed from Sawamura, Miyuki began to calm down and release Sawamura once he caught up his breath.

"… Let's go back," Miyuki declared, satisfied and relieved with the venting of all his frustrations and his boyfriend's confirmation.

"Yeah…" Sawamura softly agreed as he saw Miyuki began to turn around and started walking. Sawamura, with the intention of following, began to step forward.

But he realized that he couldn't.

Miyuki, who already had taken several steps ahead, heard a sound behind him and turned to check what had happened.

But only to be horrified by the sight before him. His eyes widened in horror as his worse nightmare appeared in front of him.

Because Sawamura had fallen and was lying on the ground.

"…Eijun?"

And the sight immediately reminded him of the sight he had seen, on that day, on that field, an unconscious Sawamura lying on the mound, unmoved.

"Eijun!" Miyuki gasped and quickly ran over to his boyfriend. But Sawamura had already begun to slowly pick himself up when Miyuki was running over. "Eijun! What happened? Are you alright?"

"Argh… yeah, I think so," Sawamura quickly answered, one hand on the ground and the other on Miyuki's arm when the catcher quickly helped him get up.

"You sure? You're not hurt anywhere, aren't you?" Miyuki began bombarding the pitcher with questions, and Sawamura looked at him while he tried to stand up but failed miserably. He could only sit up with his boyfriend's help and support.

And Miyuki seemed to be panicking even more when he saw that Sawamura's left leg was shivering.

"Shit," Miyuki cursed as he realized that no matter how he tried, he couldn't make his boyfriend stand up. "What happened? Is it your knee? Has it got worse? But why? Haven't you been going for your checkups and rehabilitation regularly? Why does it seem that you knee is not getting better? Why-"

And the next thing he knew, a pair of hands was on his cheeks, interrupting his words and thoughts.

"Calm down," Sawamura said as he quickly grabbed his captain's face when he saw that he obviously was panicking. "I'm fine, really. Just felt a little numb on my leg. The doctor said before it will happen from time to time during the rehabilitation period if I unintentionally overwork my muscles, so this is normal." The pitcher calmly said to his boyfriend as he watched Miyuki finally slowing down his pants, and his widened eyes and stiffened face began to relax as he looked at the pitcher's calm eyes and registered the words from his mouth.

"…Really?" Miyuki softly whispered; he couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah…" Sawamura confirmed again, knowing that if he didn't, his boyfriend would panic unnecessarily again. Miyuki, upon hearing the confirmation, took a big sigh of relief before falling and landing his head on Sawamura's shoulder.

"Idiot… don't scare me like that," Miyuki whispered as he slowly took in the sweet smell of honey coming from his boyfriend, feeling himself being slowly drained from all the anger and panic as relief began taking over.

But still, the image was still stuck in his head. He didn't think he could withstand remembering that image again. That image that still sometimes haunted him at night when he slept. The image that still refused to leave him when he closed his eyes. The image that would forever stayed with him as long as he was with Sawamura.

The image of a fallen Sawamura on the mound.

Miyuki then hugged his boyfriend tightly, which cause Sawamura to flinch in surprise and nervousness. It was as if he was afraid that Sawamura would run away if he didn't hold him tight enough. But the truth was, he _was_ afraid. Even he himself had no idea how scared he was. He sometimes had imagined that if Sawamura hadn't make it, if Sawamura's injuries had worsened to the point he would be disabled for the rest of his life, if Sawamura was unable to play the baseball he loved anymore, what would he do? How would he overcome all these?

At that period of time when Sawamura was recovering, he couldn't do anything but watch and pray for his recovery. He couldn't do anything but watch Sawamura still trying his best to support the team in whatever ways he could during the Senbatsu despite still being wheelchair-bounded or relying on clutches for support. He couldn't do anything to bring Sawamura back to the mound he loved so much. He couldn't do anything but to make sure the team would continue to play and win their matches, for his sake. He couldn't do anything but to tell himself the same thing over and over again whenever the team had to play a match without their idiotic moving ball pitcher supporting and playing with them.

_We will play and win all the games in your stead. For the team, and for you._

And there was nothing he could do but watch, pray and blame himself for all of these happenings. It was at moments like this, he began to ask himself the very same question again.

_Why? Why didn't I notice?_

"Miyuki?" Sawamura whispered when he noticed the tensed aura from his silent boyfriend. It was not like Miyuki at all to be silent and frozen like this, in the middle of the road. He was beginning to get worried when Miyuki didn't respond to him at all. "Miyuki? Are you alright?"

This time, Miyuki finally responded by tightening his hold even further. Miyuki then slowly released the pitcher and pulled back, but Sawamura was confused even further when he felt that Miyuki refused to meet into his eyes as he had his head facing downwards the whole time.

"…Miyuki?"

"…I'll call Rei-chan and coach to pick us up," Miyuki said as he took out his cellphone and began to click on some numbers.

"There will be no need for that," another voice entered, surprising the couple. Sawamura immediately looked towards the source, while Miyuki remained frozen, refusing to turn back to confirm the voice, because he had immediately recognized the voice belonging to the person he had wished to see the least at the moment. On the other hand, Sawamura gasped when he saw the person who called them, in a car that had stopped in front of them.

And Sawamura mentally cursed. Just when he thought that they had avoided the worse, that person just had to appear once again.

"… What do you want?" Miyuki growled, still refusing to turn back and face the driver.

"I just thought that you guys might need a ride," the driver replied back with a slightly mocking tone. "And it wouldn't hurt you to stop being so rude. I'm your father, after all."

"We don't need a ride from you," Miyuki quickly replied back, finally standing up and turning to face his father with anger and annoyance. Miyuki Tatsunori sighed at his son's stubbornness, wondering whom he inherited that trait from.

"Sure, you don't," Miyuki's father said as he pointed towards not his son, but surprisingly Sawamura instead. "But I can tell that pitcher of yours need it. I got someone else to pick up at the training center later and I don't want to cause a jam here so stop being stubborn and hurry up and get in the car."

Despite knowing what his father said makes sense, a glaring contest still followed after that between the father and son, with Miyuki stubbornly refusing his father's kindness. Sawamura could only watch the exchange between his boyfriend and his father in silence and nervousness, not knowing whether or what he should say at a time like this.

_So both father and son are equally stubborn… _And he couldn't help but sighed at the unnecessary tension between the two.

"E-Excuse me," Sawamura said as he tried to stand up, using the wall behind as a support. He spoke louder, hoping to catch both of their attention. To his relief, it did and Miyuki and his father were slightly surprised to hear the voice of the second year.

_As usual, he's surprisingly insensitive when it comes to situations like this._ Miyuki mentally slapped himself in his face; unable to comprehend how did his boyfriend manage to come in between him and his father as if it was the easiest thing to do in the world.

"I appreciate the thought, Daimyo-sama, but I'm fine with walking back to the dorm. My leg is just a little tired and I'll be fine after resting for a while."

"… You sure?" Miyuki's father gave a hesitant and skeptical look at the pitcher. It was pretty obvious that he had difficulty standing up on his own. But he twitched in annoyance when he noticed something else. "And stop calling me Daimyo-sama."

"Yeah I am sure," Sawamura replied, honesty apparent in his eyes that made the manager sighed.

"Alright," Miyuki's father said as he turned to face his steering wheel. "Suit yourself then." He was getting ready to leave when suddenly a hand was on his opened window.

"Wait," And Miyuki's father was shocked when he saw his own son stopping him, but was looking down as if he was contemplating hard on something. Sawamura was also surprised and confused on the actions of his boyfriend, and even more so when Miyuki suddenly turned after several seconds and walked towards him.

"Miyuki?" Sawamura looked up and gave a confused expression at Miyuki when he stopped and stood in front of him. But his confused expression soon changed to a surprised one when Miyuki suddenly scooped him up in his arms. "W-Wait a minute! What do you think you're doing! Put me down!"

_Not again!_

And Sawamura could only shout and struggle in vain and extreme embarrassment as Miyuki brought him closer to the car. Unlike this afternoon, they were in public this time after all. Ignoring his boyfriend's protest, he stared at his father several seconds before saying something that made the pitcher and his father gaped in astonishment.

"…We'll take that ride of yours."

_****Line Break****_

Awkward was an understatement.

For Sawamura, even _he_ could sense the tension in the silence on the journey back to their dorms. From the moment they entered the car, Miyuki had been watching silently the changing sceneries outside through the window while his father had been watching the changing road in front, concentrating on his driving. The two had seemed to refuse to meet each other's eyes and couldn't even say a single word to each other. Feeling restless due to the atmosphere surrounding him, Sawamura fidgeted, looking at his own hands resting on his knees that were closed together.

_Stay calm; you just had to bear with this situation for a few more minutes… I hope… _And Sawamura took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart and shivering hands.

"So, Sawamura-kun," the pitcher jumped and froze in shock when he heard his name from the manager. "Is your leg alright already?"

"Ah… Yeah. I guess so," Sawamura said as he tried moving and lifting his left leg, testing the feeling on his knee. He was relieved to see that he was able to bend his knee normally and the feelings on his legs were back.

"That's a relief. I don't think you would want to have Kazuya carrying you back to your room in that way again, do you?"

Upon hearing those words, the pitcher blushed in embarrassment and began to stutter, unable to find the correct words needed to explain the situation to Miyuki's father. In response, Miyuki's father smirked and began to laugh upon seeing the pitcher getting flustered through his rear mirror.

But his laughter stopped immediately when a loud thud was heard from the side of Miyuki.

"Oi, are you trying to break my window?"

But Miyuki only silently glared at his father, who was ignoring him as he continued driving. To Sawamura, an angry Miyuki was one of his worse nightmare so you couldn't really blame him when he flinched and moved himself closer to the door and away from his boyfriend when said person suddenly changed the direction of his glare from the driver to him. But Miyuki, who then saw that he had accidentally scared his boyfriend, took a deep breath to calm himself down before giving an apologetic look to Sawamura.

"Sorry," Miyuki silently mouthed his words to Sawamura, who blinked upon noticing it. The catcher then turned to once again stare at the outside view silently while Sawamura looked at him, contemplating on what had just happened.

Unknowing to them, the driver was watching the scene through his rear mirror when suddenly he realized he had to stop the car.

"We're here," Miyuki's father declared, causing Sawamura to look out and realized that indeed they had reached the dorm gate. Miyuki on the other hand immediately had opened the door and alighted the car as quickly as he could. But instead of walking towards the dorm, Sawamura was surprised to find Miyuki walking to the other side of the car, opening the door for him.

"Are you alright?" Miyuki asked, giving Sawamura the usual gentle expression which Sawamura was still not used to it. "Is your leg alright already? Can you walk?"

"Yeah," Sawamura answered, but nevertheless took the offered hand from his boyfriend and stood up. To his relief, he found himself able to stand up and walk perfectly now.

"I would suggest going for a checkup tomorrow," Miyuki's father suddenly said as the two Seidou players began to walk away from the car. "Just in case."

"Ah, thank you very much for the ride! Daimyo-sama!" Sawamura quickly turned and bowed lightly to greet Miyuki's father politely.

"… Oh please, stop calling me that," Miyuki's father said as he pinched the area between his eyebrows in annoyance. "In any case, take care of yourself. I'm looking forward to seeing you play again, kid."

Sawamura immediately brightened up upon hearing those words. He was really excited in playing again after all.

"Yes! Daimyo-sama!" Sawamura bowed again, this time with a fling of his arms. The manager wanted to berate the pitcher for the nickname called, but decided against it. It seemed to be a waste of his energy after all.

"And you, idiot son," Miyuki's father said, finally decided to stop playing the silence game. "Stop ignoring me already. Playing a cold war against me is not going to change my opinions or take back my words about you, you know that right?"

But his son seemed to still decide to ignore him despite the warning. His father could only sighed seeing his son's stubbornness.

"…Thank you," but a whisper that no one had expected came, surprising everyone present.

Sawamura blinked and turned to look at his boyfriend.

Miyuki Tatsunori widened his eyes as he faced his steering wheel, unable to believe the words that came from his son.

"Thank you, for the ride. But don't think I'm going to change my opinions about you just because of this," Miyuki said as he finally looked up and stare hard at his father, who had turned his eyes to look back at the eyes of his son. "As for those words you've said about me, I'll make you take them all back in this summer, because Seidou is definitely going to the nationals. And this time, I'll make sure I'll do it in a way that you have no chance to berate me on any blunder or mistakes I've made."

Miyuki's father may have remained unmoved by those words, but Sawamura was sure he was able to see it just as he was able to see it too.

The determination behind the eyes and words of the captain of Seidou baseball team.

And this time, the professional manager gave a small smile, not doubting the determination at all. Sawamura blinked in surprise when he noticed that.

"Hah! I doubt you can do that," Miyuki's father said in a mocking tone, causing Sawamura to flinch upon hearing those words. "There's no way you will be able to play a game perfectly. There's no such thing, even in professional baseball."

_Oi. As a father shouldn't you be encouraging him instead of saying those words to discourage him?_ Sawamura couldn't believe how dampening Miyuki's father could be. Are those words supposed to be said by a father?

"But still," the manager said as he shifted his gear, getting ready to take off. "If you think you can do it, then show me." And Sawamura blinked in surprise again when he heard those words, not expecting the encouraging words from the driver.

"Though I still think it's impossible," were the final words before Miyuki's father finally left before Sawamura had a chance to say anything in protest to the negative words while Miyuki silently watched his father drive off.

_This time, I'll make you acknowledge me._

_****Line Break****_

"Gosh, what the hell was that!?" Sawamura shouted as soon as the car went out of his sight. "Are those supposed to be words coming out from a father? Aren't you going to say anything back?" Sawamura asked as he quickly turned to face Miyuki, who looked at him back with a seemingly neutral face.

"That's not necessary," and the neutral expression suddenly changed to a determined one as Miyuki said those words. "I'll prove it to him with my play instead of words."

"Yeah! I'll help you with that!" Sawamura said, also with determination when he heard his captain's resolve. However, Miyuki suddenly looked at him skeptically.

"You sure about that?"

"What?! Of course I can!" Sawamura shouted, feeling slightly shocked when he realized his boyfriend did not believe him.

"Oh, sure you can," Miyuki said as he ruffled his boyfriend's hair, hoping to give some encouragement and maybe comfort. "Just make sure you recover and get back your old strength before the summer tournament okay? You're going to miss the Kanto tournament after all."

"Urgh… I know that. You don't have to remind me." Anyone could tell that Sawamura was really frustrated with the fact that he couldn't play with the team for the Kanto tournament; as if not playing in the Senbatsu was not bad enough already. "Don't you worry, Miyuki! Be prepared to be blown away this time during summer! Because this time, I'll bring the team to the summer Koshien! And I'll make sure you'll acknowledge my pitching before you graduate! Baka-Miyuki!"

As if those words flipped a switch inside of Miyuki, the catcher suddenly remembered the words he overheard in the training center, said by the very same pitcher in front of him.

"_He's always been trying hard to get stronger together with the whole team and everyone acknowledges him as a captain whole heartedly because they know how much effort Miyuki has put in for the team!"_

"_It's because Miyuki has always been helping me all these times that I was able to achieve what I had today!" _

"_To me Miyuki has always been one of the most awesome players I've seen in my entire life and it has always been my goal to be acknowledged by him as a pitcher and as one of his team members and partner!"_

"_I've NEVER once regretted knowing him and forming a battery with him in my entire life!"_

The next thing Sawamura knew, he was suddenly pulled into his boyfriend's chest to be hugged tightly.

And as he attempted to protest for the sudden movement, Sawamura's eyes widened in shock as he was suddenly kissed on the lips by his boyfriend.

**To be continued…**

Oops! Sorry for stopping the kiss! Bet you all are going to start cursing me, aren't you? I'm a sadist just like Miyuki after all. (lol)

Anyway, it would be great if you all could review and comment regarding my story. Let me know how you feel about it! Thanks a lot! =D

I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I could! But warning, I'm still trying to catch up on Haikyuu! XD

Regards,  
Ink-chan

P.S. Just thought that I better clarify. The scene that happened in the ward 5 months ago happened before Miyuki and Sawamura started dating.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Daiya no A.

Warning: Shounen-Ai, OOC, abusive languages

**(MAJOR) SPOILERS** from the Manga chapters that are not yet English translated and released

Pairing: Miyuki Kazuya X Sawamura Eijun

A/N: Once again, thank you all for the reviews! Sorry and thanks for all the patience for waiting for this chapter. Hope this chapter makes up for the tease in the previous~ XP

And once again, sorry for all mistakes made.

Without further ado, enjoy~!

P.S. Sawamura Eijun has the greatest potential to become probably the cutest and greatest but densest tsundere uke I've seen in my entire life. XD

**It's Okay**

**Chapter 5**

The kiss was anything but gentle. Anyone could tell the desperation, the passion, and the emotions behind it.

Probably except for Sawamura, who was not prepared when arms were tightly wrapped around his waist and a tongue roughly shoved into his mouth. He couldn't help but groan lightly when he could feel Miyuki's tongue began exploring the insides of his mouth, the kiss getting hotter, wetter and more passionate. And he couldn't help but close his eyes and kiss back when he overcame his shock, hands clenching awkwardly at Miyuki's shoulder.

Quickly, tongues were entangled, saliva was shared and hands were moving. It wasn't long that Sawamura realized that he couldn't catch up with Miyuki's fierceness in the kiss, and his lungs were beginning to demand for air to breathe. But he had no intention of losing to Miyuki when it comes to each other's desire; hence he continued kissing as long as he could.

Finally, when both sides felt the need for air, reluctantly they separated; both men gasping and panting as they watched the string of saliva that connected them broke apart.

"…What… the hell… was that?" Sawamura asked while panting, almost wanting to punch the face that was smirking when Miyuki managed to catch his breath first.

"Hmm? Isn't it obvious?" Miyuki asked as he hugged Sawamura tighter and leaned his forehead on his boyfriend's. "What can this be other than a kiss?"

"I mean," Sawamura finally caught his breath. "What the hell was that for?"

"Hmm? Who knows~? Maybe you're too cute for me to resist?"

The pitcher's already red face flushed even darker upon hearing those words, with Miyuki enjoying himself seeing how flustered his boyfriend became because of him. Sawamura could hear the obvious teasing tone behind the voice, hence pulling himself away from Miyuki and struggling to break free.

"You're just making fun of me, aren't you?! Which guy calls another guy cute! Now let me go!"

"No way," Miyuki's smirk widened even more, his hold on Sawamura tightened even more. "I'm still thinking of your punishment after all."

"Huh?" Sawamura continued struggling despite confused. "Punishment?! What for?"

"For getting all flustered because of what my dad said."

It was then the second year stopped struggling and froze on the spot, taking in the words he just heard from his boyfriend. His eyes widened as he began to think over the unbelievable, incredible and astonishing words he just heard from his catcher.

_What. The. Hell._

Oh, right. He remembered himself getting all bewildered and speechless when Miyuki's father had made a comment about the way Miyuki carried him towards the car in the extremely embarrassing bridal style. It was then he remembered Miyuki being angry and slammed his fist onto the window after that. At that time, Sawamura had no idea at all why Miyuki was so angry it felt like he was going to murder his own father and anyone getting in his way. Even he himself was startled and petrified by Miyuki's murderous glare.

"Are you serious? You were angry because I was flustered in front of your dad? What the hell, Miyuki!" And Sawamura started struggling again, getting worked up by the most ridiculous reason of getting angry with your own father he had ever heard in his entire life.

"Because I don't remember giving you the permission for showing that unguarded expression of yours to anyone else."

"I beg your pardon?!"

And Sawamura froze again, eyes widened once again as the words he was hearing from Miyuki were becoming more absurd.

_Permission? My expression?_

…_Are you serious?_

"What the hell? You're making no sense!"

"Ah, sorry. Almost forgot you're slow and stupid."

"Don't call me stupid! And I still don't get what are you trying to say!"

"You mean you still can't understand?" Miyuki sighed as he was once again reminded on how dense Sawamura was. "It means I don't like you getting all flustered in front of my dad. I hate it when you showed other people that expression of yours to someone else other than ME. I'm the ONLY one whom you can let your guard down. You can ONLY look at me, and ONLY me."

"Huh?!"

_What do you mean 'ONLY' you? It sounded like you're-_

And it was at that time, Sawamura finally realized what Miyuki was trying to say.

_Shit. You don't mean…_

"You were jealous?" Sawamura could feel Miyuki suddenly twitched while in his arms when he said those words. "Are you fucking serious?! You were jealous of your own dad? That's why you were mad?"

"Got a problem?" Miyuki answered quickly, making Sawamura incredulous.

"W-W-W-W-What the hell are you saying?! Getting mad at your own dad over such a insignificant matter-"

"It's not a insignificant matter to me."

"Huh?"

"Nothing is insignificant when it comes to you," Miyuki said after he pulled back to face his boyfriend, eyes reflecting the seriousness and honesty behind those words. Sawamura didn't know if his face could get anymore flushed and redder when he saw Miyuki's eyes behind his glasses. He didn't know if his face could get anymore hotter than he felt and he soon found himself unable to look directly into the catcher's eyes.

So much for thinking that you were already used to Miyuki being direct and straightforward.

And just when you thought you had to get used to Miyuki being gentle, you had to get used to him being too direct when it comes to embarrassing affections and confessions.

On the other hand, Miyuki was enjoying himself when he saw the pitcher's face getting all flushed till his ears and neck because of what he said. He could immediately tell that the second-year was trying hard not to look directly into his eyes because of nervousness and his inability to accept all the overwhelming affections from his boyfriend. Miyuki smirked upon the sight of his flustered but silent boyfriend. It was going to take time for Sawamura to get used to all these; it was Sawamura's first time in dating after all.

"Eijun-"

"No!" the second-year yelled as he quickly used both his hands to cover the catcher's mouth, still unable to look at him. "Please stop talking! Don't say a word anymore!"

"…Then," Miyuki said as he gently removed the pitcher's hand from his mouth and lowered his head to peek at his boyfriend's face. "Can I kiss you again?"

"What?! Of course not! You perv-mmmmm!" and Sawamura found himself being caught in another kiss. This time, the kiss was gentle, but no less passionate, and Sawamura couldn't help but groan again, when he felt aroused over the gentleness and feelings behind the kiss. It didn't help when he could feel Miyuki slipping his hands down from his back to his hips, and it seemed to be going lower onto his-

"Ahem," a purposely-loud voice mimicking the sound of clearing the throat suddenly echoed through the night air, making Sawamura jumped and quickly pushed Miyuki away. He then quickly looked towards the source of the voice with an extremely flushed and embarrassed face while Miyuki mentally cursed and clicked his tongue in annoyance at the intrusion of their private time.

"K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-Koushuu!" Sawamura identified and shouted out to the first-year that was standing by the dorm gate, with the blonde facing the couple with a neutral face. Sawamura's state of redness became worse when he realized they were caught for being seen by the bystander. "W-W-What are you two doing here?"

"Welcome back, senpais," Koushuu greeted, surprisingly calm and unaffected. "I'm here to pick you up, Sawamura-senpai."

"Huh?" Sawamura looked at his junior, confused. However Miyuki, on the other hand, seemed to react strongly to this and immediately turned to face the first-year catcher with annoyance obvious in his eyes.

"Oi," his annoyance was obvious in his voice too. "I thought we had an agreement?"

"Agreement?" Sawamura said, puzzled even more. _What is Miyuki up to this time?_

"Sorry, but that request of yours is nullified," Koushuu calmly answered, despite knowing that his captain was pretty irritated and angry. "Sawamura-senpai is banned from being in _your_ room with you _alone_ from now onwards till senpai's knee has fully recovered."

"And why the hell is that?"

"Because who knows what will you do to Sawamura-senpai if we leave you two alone in your room tonight. You're dangerous and an unnecessary asset to Sawamura-senpai at this time of the night."

Upon hearing those words, the couple froze, unable to believe those words were coming out from their junior, who was a first-year member that had just joined Seidou's baseball. It usually took much, much courage for a first-year to be questioning and criticizing a senior, much more the team captain. As he registered those words, Miyuki began to twitch in annoyance, forcing a smile as he tried hard to fight his urges to straggle the first year.

"Hoh? You have a lot of guts saying that, huh?"

"I'm just saying what I really thought, just like what you usually do, Miyuki-senpai," again, Koushuu was able to answer his annoyed captain calmly, as if he was ignoring the apparent irritation Miyuki was showing despite the forced smile showed on his face.

"Erm? Guys? Koushuu? Miyuki-senpai?" Sawamura called out to the two, becoming even more confused at the situation. _What is actually going on?_

"So does this mean you're sending a challenge to me?" Miyuki said, his irritation began leaking in the form of fired up aura, bending down to lightly glare at Koushuu, eyebrow twitching and the smile still on his face.

"I don't really mean it like that, but if you wish to think this way, then you're free to do so," Sawamura was probably the only one in the world who couldn't notice the irritation behind the calm tone and neutral face in Koushuu's voice.

"Wow, you've got a lot of nerves for a first year, haven't you?"

"Like I said, I never thought of it that way," Koushuu emphasized again, and he could see his captain fire up even more and try hard to contain his irritation as much as he could, but seemed to be failing very badly. "And about Sawamura-senpai, I'm purely stating the facts together with my concerns for his health. We need him for the summer tournament after all since we can't use him in the Kanto tournament. Seidou lost pretty badly in Senbatsu without Sawamura-senpai, isn't it?"

"Erm, Koushuu?" Sawamura was probably the only one in the world who was able to fearlessly tried to come in between the two while they were arguing quite heatedly. "Technically it wasn't that bad since we made it to the top 16-"

"I'm just making sure you're not doing anything that would cause a harm on Sawamura-senpai and delay his recovery unnecessarily." And finally Koushuu began to fire up as well, determined not to lose in this battle.

"And why does staying with me tonight is dangerous to Sawamura?"

"Because when it comes to Sawamura-senpai, you suck at controlling yourself, according to Kuromochi-senpai."

In that flash of a moment, Miyuki blinked upon hearing those words; the irritated glare and fired up aura quickly disappeared within a second. Annoyance in his eyes immediately changed to surprise upon that blink, and Miyuki found himself unable to argue back. Although Sawamura couldn't really read the atmosphere, Miyuki being speechless all of a sudden was enough for him to find the situation weird. And it was weirder and more concerning for him when he saw Miyuki lowered his head, an apparent frown formed on his face with his eyes covered by the light reflected on his spectacles.

_Miyuki?_

"Nothing to say?" Koushuu said after receiving no reply from Miyuki. "I'll take it that I was right then. Well then, Sawamura-senpai. Shall we return to our room?" Koushuu said as he gestured the pitcher to follow him.

"Ah, well, that's…" Sawamura stuttered as he looked at Miyuki with concern. For Miyuki to suddenly become quiet was really a rare scene. Although he didn't really understand what was going on, it didn't stop him from getting worried. "Miyuki? Are you alright?"

Miyuki stayed silent for a few seconds, before slowly lifting up his face to look at his boyfriend. A small smile then formed on his face when he saw the genuine concern and worry behind Sawamura's eyes.

"…Don't worry about me," Miyuki said as he ruffled Sawamura's hair. "Koushuu's right. You should really go back and have an early night. I'll see you tomorrow in practice."

"Really?" Sawamura asked, wanting a confirmation. "You're really alright?"

"Yeah," Miyuki confirmed, putting down his hand as he gestured Sawamura to follow the first-year catcher too. "See you tomorrow."

"… See you tomorrow too," Sawamura greeted back as he turned to follow Koushuu, turning to see Miyuki one last time before he walked away, seeing Miyuki waving him with a smile on his face.

Sawamura fully understood that he should go back quickly, do his homework, and have a good night rest after saying good night to Miyuki.

But why did he still feel so disappointed?

_****Line Break****_

He landed his head on the desk again, finding himself unable to concentrate on the numbers on the textbook before him. It was already bad enough that he was very weak in mathematics, it didn't help too when he couldn't concentrate and put all his attention into his homework.

"Having trouble with homework again, Sawamura-senpai?" Koushuu asked as he looked up from the book he was reading when he heard the thud from his senior's table.

"Well, that's…" Sawamura didn't know if he should tell Koushuu, that other than having difficulties figuring out what his notes were trying to say, he also couldn't make the effort to understand and absorb the formulas and notes because his mind was filled with only one thing.

_I really wondered what's wrong with Miyuki. Why did he-_

"Urgh!" a loud groan interrupted Sawamura's thoughts as he jumped and looked at the source. "I lost again!"

"Takuma," Koushuu sighed as he heard the groan, turning to look at the source as well. "I thought I've already told you. Keep your volume down if you still want to continue playing game here."

"But I don't get it!" Seto yelled in frustration as he pulled his hair. "Why do I always lose to you, Kuramochi-senpai?!"

"Because I'm the best! Hya-ha-ha!" Kuramochi laughed at the pathetic state of his junior, finding his reaction one of the best from someone who kept losing to him in his game of Marvel vs. Capcom.

"Again!" Seto declared, unable to accept defeat as he released his hair and quickly took up the remote controller in front of him again.

"Hya-ha! You're on!"

"Takuma," Koushuu quickly protested upon hearing his friend's declaration. "You should have gone back to your room ten minutes ago."

"Aw, come on, Koushuu!" Seto protested back, hurriedly beginning a new game. "Just let me get this right! It's the least you can do since I joined you and Kuramochi-senpai in going against the agreement we had with Miyuki-senpai!"

"Huh? Agreement?" Sawamura immediately gave all his attention to the first-year when he heard his boyfriend's name. "What do you mean by that? Seto?"

"Huh, Sawamura-senpai? You didn't know?"

"Come to think of it, Koushuu," Sawamura turned to speak to the first-year catcher when he remembered something from the conversation he had with Miyuki. "Miyuki said about you and him having an agreement. What do you mean by that?"

"Well, that's-"

"Oi, Sawamura," Kuramochi called, interrupting the catcher because he noticed something on Sawamura's desk. "Your cellphone is vibrating."

Sawamura turned to look at the third year in slight confusion upon his interruption, and then quickly turned back to look at the cellphone on his desk. True enough, his cellphone had lightened up and was vibrating, indicating a new message just came in. Sawamura then promptly opened it, wondering who it could be.

**Wakana: Eijun! How's rehabilitation today? Are you recovering well? Don't forget that you have a checkup next Friday; knowing you, you've probably forgotten about it. Oh, and your mum and I will be coming to visit you! So see you next Friday! \(^0^)/**

Sawamura blinked twice upon reading the message, before opening his desk drawer and taking out his organizer to check his schedule for next Friday. (Miyuki had the insight to buy one for him and made sure he recorded all his rehabilitation and check up schedules in it once he was released from the hospital) True enough, a check up was indeed scheduled next Friday, with him almost forgetting about it. He then took up his phone again to send a reply to Wakana, thanking her for the reminder and letting her know he would love to see his mother and her again.

After sending his reply, Sawamura was about to close his cellphone when he realized he had another unread message in his email inbox. Confused, he checked the email message in his inbox, eyes widening in surprise when he saw whom it was from.

**Miyuki Kazuya: Bet you're blushing like mad right now, aren't you? (lol) Looking forward to spending more time with you, ALONE. So wait for me and don't run away! (Don't miss me too much since we're seeing each other soon, hahaha!) XD**

Sawamura started blushing, feeling slightly irritated at the teasing tone in the content. He then checked the time sent for this message, realizing it was received before he met Miyuki in the training center. It was then he remembered, that there was another vibration from his cellphone when he was speaking to Miyuki's father, after reading the first message Miyuki sent. He had already placed his cellphone aside, into his bag during the whole commotion with the troublesome father and son, not bothering to check even when he entered his room and did his homework.

But it was at this moment, Sawamura remembered again what Miyuki had said before he left for rehabilitation today; the words which totally left him flustered and speechless and also made him realized that Miyuki was more gentle and considerate than he really thought.

"_Because, like this, I can spend more time with you." _

"Sawamura-senpai?" Koushuu called when he realized his senior pitcher suddenly went quiet. "Are you alright? Your face is really red. Are you perhaps sick?"

But what he didn't realize was that Sawamura didn't blush because he was sick. He doubted that the first year pitcher was able to understand.

The overwhelming gleeful and elated feeling he had when he saw how gentle and affectionate Miyuki was.

The overwhelming nervousness and embarrassment he felt when Miyuki just directly poured out his words and feelings as if he wasn't embarrassed or ashamed by what he said.

The overwhelming guilt and desire he felt when he realized how much Miyuki had considered and done for him, yet he felt he had not done anything back to repay him.

It was probably then he realized how much strongly he felt the same as Miyuki too.

_I want to see him._

"I-I'm sorry! Koushuu! Kuramochi-senpai!" Sawamura said loudly as he suddenly stood up and bowed down, surprising everyone in the room. "Please let me see Miyuki right now!"

_I want to see him._

"Senpai… you do know that you shouldn't, don't you?" Koushuu answered, surprised and confused at his senior's sudden request.

_I really want to see him._

"I know! I know I still have tons of homework to finish. But still, please allow me to see him! I promise I'll be back before lights out or at least till Seto returns to his room! Please! Please let me go!"

_I really want to see him, right now._

"Erm, senpai. I think you got it all wrong-"

"Please!"

_I really want to see Miyuki, right now._

"… Fine," the answer from the oldest occupant in the room who was looking at his game on the TV screen at the moment surprised the rest, leaving the two first-years and the second year speechless for a few seconds before the latter was able to register that he was finally given the permission he needed.

"Kuramochi-senpai!"

"But only till Seto returns to his room," Kuramochi added, still looking at the TV screen, playing his game. "Make sure you make an immediate return once Seto reaches his room. And absolutely no physical and strenuous activity with Miyuki tonight!"

"Yes! Thank you! Kuramochi-senpai!" Sawamura bowed down again, this time in gratitude. But just as he was about to leave through the door, he realized something. "Eh? What do you mean by physical and strenuous activity?"

"…Just tell Miyuki that. He'll understand." _I hope._

"Alright! Thank you very much! Kuramochi-senpai!"

"Just go already."

"Yes! I'll be going!" and with that, the sound of the door being closed echoed in the room, with Koushuu looking at the door for a while as if hoping it would be opened again by a certain pitcher he respected.

"…You sure about this, Kuramochi-senpai?" Koushuu asked his other roommate when it was pretty obvious the door won't be opening again very soon. "Even after I went through all the trouble to convince Miyuki-senpai to nullify the agreement to have Takuma and Sawamura-senpai switched rooms for tonight…"

"…It's fine," Kuramochi answered with a tired tone, still facing the TV screen. "Just leave that idiot alone."

And with that he continued his game.

_****Line Break****_

A knock on a door interrupted his thoughts, prompting Miyuki to place the glove he had in his hand on his bed before heading to the door to open it. He jumped in surprised when he opened the door, not prepared to see the person standing right in front of him.

"Eijun?"

"Erm, hi, Miyuki," Sawamura said as he scratched his head, feeling slightly nervous as he spoke. "C-Can I come in?"

"I'm surprised you're here," Miyuki said as he began to look around as if checking if there was anyone else with Sawamura. "Since that Okumura doesn't seem to allow it."

When Miyuki was convinced that the irritating first-year did not follow Sawamura to his room, an inspiration hit him when he saw Sawamura getting all restless and nervous, as he kept fidgeted with a red face. He immediately smiled at the sight.

"Or, did you sneak out just to see me?" Miyuki couldn't help but make that guess while holding a teasing smirk on his face.

"O-O-Of course not!" Sawamura quickly denied with a blushing face, feeling flustered when Miyuki had made the partially correct guess, but refused to let him know as Sawamura could tell that he was definitely going to tease him for it. "I, er, I need your help!"

"Help?" Miyuki raised an eyebrow in confusion at his boyfriend's words despite his flustered state.

"Well, you did agree to help me in reviewing Suzuki's training menu, didn't you? So I had come here with that intention!"

"Oh really?" Sawamura flinched when he saw the smirk on Miyuki's face widened. "Then where are the scrolls? I did hear that the training menu you gave to Suzuki are all from Chris-senpai's old scrolls."

And Miyuki couldn't help but laughed when he saw Sawamura becoming more flustered when he realized that he was right, again. Miyuki found the situation more amusing when he saw Sawamura stuttered, trying hard to find excuses to explain. Sometimes Miyuki really couldn't help but to tease the pitcher, especially when he was so easy to read through.

"Forgot about them huh?" Miyuki commented when he finally calmed down. "Did you actually really come here for that purpose?"

"O-Of course I am!" Sawamura was determined not to give in to Miyuki's ego. "We can still review them without the scrolls right?"

"Oh really? You can remember every single exercise set in those scrolls? And that includes the sets in all three scrolls Chris-senpai had given to you?"

"Urgh… Fine! I'll head back and bring them here!"

"No, wait."

Sawamura was surprised when he found himself being pulled back immediately when he turned around with the intention of going back to his room. He then turned his head to look behind when he found himself landed on a firm chest and quickly arms were wrapping around his waist.

"Miyuki?"

"I was just kidding," Miyuki said softly as he leaned his face on Sawamura's hair, soothed by the sweet smell of Sawamura's citrus shampoo. "Please stay, Eijun."

"But the training menu-"

"We can do that tomorrow instead, since you still can't join in the practice yet."

"Hey! You don't have to say that out!"

"What I am trying to say is, just stay, Eijun. Just stay here with me."

Sawamura froze when he heard Miyuki's voice, realizing how soft and gentle it suddenly became. He blushed again when he could feel Miyuki kissing his hair.

"Erm, Miyuki?" Sawamura quickly said as he realized something. "C-Can we go in now? Who knows who could be watching us right now…"

Miyuki sighed as he followed his boyfriend's wishes, remembering how shy he was when it comes to public display affections and not every one in the baseball team knew about their relationship.

Miyuki entered his room first, followed by Sawamura, not forgetting his greeting and to remove his shoes when he entered. At first, Sawamura stood by Miyuki's desk awkwardly, before the catcher prompted him to sit beside him on his bed. Without thinking about it at all, Sawamura sat down beside Miyuki on his bed. Miyuki sighed as he saw how stiff Sawamura was; it wasn't really the first time they were in his room alone. It was then he wrapped his arm around Sawamura's shoulder and led him to lean his head on his shoulder.

To ease the stiffness and nervousness of his boyfriend, Miyuki began to draw imaginary circles on Sawamura's shoulder, hoping it would become some sort of comfort. Sawamura probably had no idea how elated Miyuki was at the moment. It was the first time for Sawamura to take the initiative to come to his senior's room after all; it had been Miyuki's request whenever he came over for the past three months.

Sawamura then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, slowly beginning to relax when he felt the soothing comfort on his shoulder. Being this close to Miyuki and being able to smell the unique scent of Miyuki also helped too. When he could slowly feel his heart beginning to calm down, Sawamura took another deep breath before opening his eyes, noticing the baseball glove that was on the other side of Miyuki. Out of curiosity, Sawamura stretched out his hand to bring up the glove closer to him.

"This isn't a catcher's mitt, isn't it?" Sawamura said as he examined the glove. It seemed to be a normal infielder's glove, and it looked really old with the initials of 'TM' that seemed to be sewed onto the wrist pad of the glove.

"…This glove was… my first baseball glove," Miyuki finally explained, taking the glove from Sawamura. "I was looking at it just now to remind myself."

"Of what?" Sawamura asked; curiosity showing obviously.

"Of the bet I made with my dad. As a professional baseball manager, he always do not have the time to spend with me, and he never once look at me as his son in my life. So, I made a bet with him saying that if I managed to prove myself in baseball, he will have no choice but to acknowledge me and to finally properly look at me," Miyuki explained, and then raised up his glove to properly looked at it again. "I swore upon this glove at that time. So looking at it will remind me of the bet and to make sure that I won't forget my goals and the reasons I played baseball."

"Reasons? It was only because of that bet that you played baseball?" Sawamura asked, afraid of the answer he would receive. He didn't want Miyuki playing baseball because he made some bet with someone else to do it. He didn't want Miyuki to do it because he was kind of forced to play baseball in order to get his father's acknowledgement.

"No," Miyuki quickly answered without hesitation, making Sawamura mentally sighed in relief. "Because other than the bet, this glove also reminded me on how much I actually really love baseball. As the first glove and gift I received from my dad, it reminded me how much I actually enjoyed playing baseball, even if my dad hardly played with me."

_Though I hate to admit it, he was the one that introduced me to baseball in the first place. Dammit._

"Then it's no problem!" it was then Sawamura suddenly stood up in front of Miyuki, with hands on his hips with a wide and cheeky smile on his face. "As long as you enjoy baseball, as long as you keep playing like you always do, I'm sure that your dad will finally acknowledge your talents and abilities one day! And finally, you will be able to enjoy baseball with your dad again!"

Miyuki's eyes widened upon hearing those words. It was the first time that someone said those words to him. It was the first time that someone gave him hope about the relationship between him and his father. He had begun to think that it was useless and over. Delighted by those words, he suddenly grabbed Sawamura's arm, threw the glove aside on the floor and roughly pulled Sawamura to the bed, immediately hover over him when Sawamura landed on the bed.

"Hey! What are you-" and Sawamura found himself unable to protest back, because Miyuki had quickly kissed him again, giving him no chance to speak. Once again, Sawamura felt the familiar feeling of their tongues probing and dancing with each other, making him feel hot all over again. He looked at Miyuki with a flustered face when they separated, not knowing what to say or think. Miyuki, on the other hand, smirked upon the sight and then moved his hand to push Sawamura's hair back to kiss gently at his forehead.

"So… will you be able to stay with me tonight?" Miyuki asked hopefully. However, that question prompted Sawamura to remember Kuramochi's words and his promise with him when he allowed him to come over to meet Miyuki.

"I-I'm sorry, Miyuki," Sawamura apologized when he knew that the catcher would probably wouldn't like his answer. "I promised Kuramochi-senpai that I'll be back when Seto comes back; he's still playing games in our room. He should be back before lights out, I guess."

"Do you have to?" Miyuki asked as he tried giving the pout which always worked on the second-year.

"I'm sorry, I already promised," Sawamura replied, giving light slaps on Miyuki's cheeks when he saw the expression. "Oh, and also, Kuramochi-senpai said no physical and strenuous activity with you tonight; but I'm not really sure what does that mean though."

Upon hearing those words, Miyuki's eyes widened and he twitched and froze, shocked by what he just heard. Sawamura blinked and looked at Miyuki's reaction in confusion, and was probably puzzled even more when he saw that Miyuki's face was beginning to glow slightly red.

"Eijun, you really had no idea what is Kuramochi trying to say?" Miyuki asked after being silent for several seconds. However, there seemed to be no need for the pitcher to answer him; the confused expression on the face was enough. Miyuki then heaved a big sigh and landed his head on Sawamura's shoulder when he remembered once again, his boyfriend was an idiot.

"You mean… you really don't know what does Kuramochi mean by the 'physical and strenuous activity' he was talking about?"

"Like I said, I don't know! Why are you asking me?"

"Well, I guess it's true," Miyuki said as he lifted himself up to look at his boyfriend, and then he sat up only to suddenly lightly touched Sawamura's left knee. "You are not ready to be doing any _physical_ and _strenuous_ activity yet."

"Just what the hell are you talking about?" Feeling slightly insulted, Sawamura suddenly sat up to lightly glare at Miyuki.

"You want to know? Then I'll tell you," Miyuki softly said as he smirked, and then moved himself closer to whisper lightly at Sawamura's ear. "It means sex, Eijun."

It was Sawamura's turn to freeze in shock this time, taking in the word that Miyuki had just said and used to answer his question. Miyuki pulled back after realizing that the pitcher suddenly went all silent and unmoved, only to be finding his boyfriend's face heavy in darkened red and gaping in shock. Incoherent words were also leaking out from his mouth; unable to overcome the shock he had just received.

Miyuki then used his hand to cover his mouth, trying hard not to laugh out loud. As usual, his pitcher's reactions to his teasing were so amusing, which made him irresistible and tempting to make fun of. Miyuki soon found himself shivering as he tried harder to hold himself back.

And it wasn't long till Miyuki finally was unable to hold back, his limit snapping as he burst out laughing, to the point where tears starting coming out. Sawamura frowned upon this, not finding the situation funny or entertaining at all.

"What the hell, Miyuki! What's so funny!" Sawamura yelled while glaring at the catcher who was clenching at his sides still laughing hard.

"I-I-I'm sorry," Miyuki stuttered out, trying to calm down from laughing too much. "I can't believe this… You really are the best!" Miyuki said as he continued to laugh, making the frown on Sawamura's face even wider.

But after some time, Sawamura sighed as he saw Miyuki finally calming down, complaining about how much his stomach hurts from laughing too much. And Miyuki wasn't prepared for a hand to be suddenly ruffling his hair lightly, followed by a small smile from the pitcher sitting in front of him.

"Well, at least you seem to be in a better mood now, to be able to laugh like this," Sawamura said as he continued patting his head before he folded his arms and grinned triumphantly, giving the arrogant superior pose and aura. "As I thought, you can't laugh without me huh? Hahaha!"

And Miyuki gasped lightly when he heard those words; his laughter completely stopped. He looked at Sawamura with a surprised and awed expression, wondering to himself. _Was he worried about me? Or he just said that without actually really thinking about it?_

Miyuki opted for the latter, seeing the innocent, cheeky and idiotic grin still on Sawamura's face. But it still didn't change the fact that thanks to Sawamura and his (thoughtless) comfort, he felt so much better mentally and emotionally.

"Thank you," Miyuki softly whispered, earning a confused look from Sawamura as he couldn't catch his words. "You're really are the best."

And Sawamura was definitely not prepared to be hugged tightly and kissed passionately suddenly for the forth time for that night while being lowered to the bed once again.

_****Line Break****_

The sound of the unlocking of a door suddenly echoed, causing the culprit to flinch upon hearing the unexpected sound. He froze for a few seconds, and then heaved a sigh of relief when he heard no movements from the other side of the door. The bespectacled culprit then turned back to face his accomplice with a thumb up, indicating mission accomplished.

After a whisper of thanks, the accomplice then moved forward to open the door as quietly as he could, the door un-locker stepping back. He continued to observe and watch out for any sign of sudden movement as he closed the door gently, and once he saw the two occupants in the room still sleeping soundly on the bed, he quietly but quickly stepped towards the nearest desk in the room, placing the paper bag he had in his hand on the table before turning and quickly stepping back towards the door before he was caught.

"Seto?" however not everything seemed to go as planned, and the sneaker jumped and cursed in a whisper upon hearing a voice from behind him, refusing to turn back when he recognized the voice.

"Kuramochi?" Miyuki whispered with an obvious tone of surprise. He had expected his roommate to be back and was going to wake his sleeping mate up. But he definitely didn't expect Sawamura's roommate to be here instead, much more that he was actually trying to sneak out instead of indicating he was coming in to bring his idiotic roommate back to their room. "Why are you-"

"Shh," Kuramochi silenced Miyuki with his back still facing him; much to the latter's surprise. "Quiet, or you'll wake Sawamura up."

Miyuki looked at Kuramochi's back with a confused expression, before tracing back Kuramochi's steps to find a paper bag which Kuramochi left behind on his desk.

"What's that?"

"…Sawamura's change of clothes," Kuramochi's reply caused Miyuki to widened his eyes and swiftly turned to look at Kuramochi in surprise. "Like this, Sawamura won't need to travel back before he reported for school tomorrow."

"I see…" Miyuki said, still very surprised by what Kuramochi had done. He didn't think he would allow Sawamura to continue to stay.

"Seto will be staying in our room till tomorrow," Kuramochi said before he quickly exited the room, knowing that Miyuki would catch the hint quickly unlike the slow-minded pitcher who was still sleeping soundly beside Miyuki. Once he exited, he heaved a deep sigh of relief, releasing all the tension he was accumulating on his body during the whole time when he had the unplanned conversation with Miyuki.

"So… how's the situation inside?" Kuramochi looked up when he was asked the question by the blonde who was standing beside his bespectacled friend.

"Well," Kuramochi replied with a contemplating expression. "They both had their clothes on when they're sleeping, so I'm guessing they didn't do it. They're just sleeping, that's all."

"…Then it's fine," Koushuu said, as he sighed; though it was out of defeat or relief no one really knew.

"Well then," Seto said as he kept his keys into his pocket. "Guess we better head back to get some sleep too."

Koushuu nodded in agreement before he turned and walked down the stairs, followed by his bespectacled friend. As both tried hard not to walk down the stairs without making too much noise, Kuramochi looked back to the closed door for a while before following his two juniors behind, feeling slightly defeated.

_Guess it's still difficult for me to properly talk to Miyuki huh…_

Meanwhile, Miyuki was also looking at the door Kuramochi had closed a few minutes ago, while contemplating once again the situation between him and the shortstop.

He sighed as he looked down and thought about the conversation they just had, awed by the amount of words they were able to share and exchange with each other even after not properly talking to each other for at least six months.

**To be continued**

Please review? Pretty please? All comments, thoughts and reviews are greatly appreciated! :)

Look forward to the next chapter, where I shall finally explore the Seidou regulars and key members! If you guys like it, you can tell me which member you would like me to explore first or who else you want me to introduce into the story other than the regular members. :D

Till next time,  
Ink-chan :D


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Daiya no A.

Warning: Shounen-Ai, OOC, abusive languages

**(MAJOR) SPOILERS** from the Manga chapters that are not yet English translated and released

Pairing: Miyuki Kazuya X Sawamura Eijun

A/N: Once again, thank you all for the reviews! Sorry and thanks for all the patience for waiting for this chapter.

And once again, sorry for all mistakes made. Feel free to let me know if you find one, especially for English spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Without further ado, enjoy~!

**It's Okay**

**Chapter 6**

The blaring sound of an alarm immediately blared through his world of sleep, causing Miyuki to stir and slowly open his eyes. He wondered in the first few moments about the extra weight and the mass of brown hair on his chest, but as his mind slowly activated itself and recognized his surroundings, he immediately identified the mass of hair in front of him belonging to Sawamura. Memories of last night began to calmly flood back into him and he smiled upon seeing his boyfriend's sleeping face.

He remembered last night as one of the rare moments where his boyfriend took the initiative to come to his room to spend some time with him.

He remembered last night as one of the rare moments where he was able to openly talk about his father despite his hesitation to do so.

He remembered last night as one of the rare moments where he was given hope about the relationship between him and his father.

He remembered last night as one of the rare moments where he was glad to break down his barriers and open up his heart to someone else, especially since that someone is the person whom he had decided to never let go for the rest of his life.

And he couldn't be more elated when the said person is currently sleeping peacefully in his arms right now. It was the first time they were sleeping on the same bed after all. For the past three months when they started going out, they had been following a routine of going back to each other's room when lights out after spending their time in either one of their room's; usually Miyuki's since Kuramochi would definitely be in his own room playing his games while Miyuki could always ask Seto to play with him. After all, Kuramochi had already stopped coming to his room to play games in the night since that incident six months ago.

"…_You knew it, didn't you?"_

"…"

"_Why didn't you mention it?"_

"…"

"_Why?"_

"…"

"_Kuramochi!"_

"_Because, we needed him. And you know that fully well as much as I do!"_

Miyuki sighed in frustration as he turned around slowly to look at the paper bag on his desk. It had been left there by Kuramochi last night, claiming it was Sawamura's change of clothes. If not for that incident six months ago, Miyuki would have suspected it could be some sort of prank done by Kuramochi and Koushuu to teach him a lesson, but right now he doubt it very much. He was reminded how gentler and considerate Kuramochi had become when it comes to Sawamura since that final match of the fall tournament, and how much his attitude changed towards him since that fight between them. Although during the practices and games they were able to put aside their differences and focus on winning, things became totally different when they were out of the baseball field. Despite them still being classmates and having the captain and vice-captain relationship between them, anyone could probably tell how strained and awkward the friendship and team spirit between them had become.

Well, probably except for the one currently sleeping in his arms. Miyuki sighed again and tightened his hold on Sawamura, turning back slowly and lying back down to continue the cuddling with his boyfriend. He sometimes wondered to himself how would Sawamura react if he were to find out what had happened between him and his roommate, though there was no doubt that he would be unhappy about it. Both he and Kuramochi hadn't said a word to Sawamura about them yet, but it would be a matter of time that the pitcher would learn about the incident and do something about it. What would that be, he didn't know. Sawamura was always full of surprises after all. Miyuki smiled upon that thought as he nuzzled his nose on Sawamura's hair.

And after taking a deep breath to smell the sweet citrus scent, Miyuki finally decided to forget all his troubles for the time being and appreciate the moment he had with his boyfriend right now. It was the first time he woke up to his boyfriend's sleeping face, and how he wished he could stay like this forever.

But of course that's not possible and it wasn't long that he felt Sawamura finally started to stir in his arms, indicating the signs of his waking. And as Sawamura began to open his eyes, Miyuki moved to stare hard at the pitcher's face, wondering to himself the faces Sawamura would make when he was waking up.

True enough, phases of Sawamura's awakening faces were pretty amusing and cute to Miyuki. In the first few seconds, Sawamura was blinking his half-opened eyes, as if he was wondering to himself how and why he was in an unfamiliar room that was apparently not his, and why was Miyuki's face right in front of him, smirking playfully that promised nothing good. And it seemed to finally register fully in Sawamura's slow and awakening mind that it WAS Miyuki's smirking face that was right in front of him, and it was probably then Sawamura remembered last night falling asleep in Miyuki's arms on his bed while waiting for Seto to come back.

And Sawamura swore he could feel Miyuki's smug face getting wider when he saw Sawamura's widened eyes when he finally registered the situation he was currently facing. And Miyuki couldn't help but find Sawamura becoming more adorable when Sawamura's blushed hard, quickly looked down and curled himself more as if to hide his face.

"W-W-What time is it already?"

"It's morning already," Miyuki replied as he moved his arms to tighten his hold on his boyfriend even further. He then moved his hand to cup Sawamura's cheek, making his boyfriend look up and meet his eyes. As expected, Sawamura's face was still red with embarrassment.

"But Seto-" And Sawamura wasn't allowed to finish his words as the catcher leaned forward to press his lips onto his boyfriend's; all previous thoughts of whatever he was going to say to Miyuki disappeared quickly as Miyuki continued kissing him; both ignoring the morning breath of each other. Miyuki reluctantly pulled back soon after, but his current mood became more gleeful when he saw Sawamura blushing even harder and looking down, refusing to look into his eyes.

_Shit, too cute. _

"Good morning."

"…Good Morning."

And to Miyuki, this was probably one of the best mornings he had in his life so far.

_****Line Break****_

He couldn't help it. He was just too tired. So of course he couldn't help it when his mind decided to make him yawn loudly with a big opened mouth as he stretched out his arms.

And he also couldn't help but be very, very annoyed.

Hence he wasn't prepared when he was lightly smacked on his head from behind as he dazedly walked along the classroom corridors while making his way to the school's shoe racks. Feeling annoyed due to being extremely sleepy and some other reasons, Suzuki attempted to glare as he turned around to see who had the guts to smack his head in his current mood and energy, though in his current energy level probably anyone could get away with it.

"Woah, that was some big yawn you have, compared to those you had in class," Seto commented with a teasing tone as he put up both his hands in front indicating his surrender to his sleepy fellow first year, despite the rolled textbook still in his right hand. Suzuki sighed as he turned and continued walking, followed by Seto and Koushuu who was walking beside him.

"…Don't remind me."

"Woah, dude," Seto raised both his hands up in surrender again when he noticed the annoyed mood from Suzuki. "What happened to you? Didn't get enough sleep? What were you doing last night?"

"Argh, stop disturbing me, Seto. You're being very annoying right now." Suzuki said as he continued walking in heavy steps, feeling more annoyed. Seto looked at Koushuu in confusion before both of them followed the pitcher.

"So… What happened to him?" Seto couldn't help but asked as he watched the sloppy back of Suzuki, hoping his blonde friend had the answers.

"…Probably spent the whole night watching those videos," Koushuu replied, but made his bespectacled friend more confused instead. "As instructed by Manager Takashima, Suzuki is to watch the videos of Seidou's last year pre-summer practice games, the practice game during the summer camp, the summer tournament, the practice games during the summer break and the fall tournament."

Seto turned to his blonde friend in slight surprise upon hearing those words, wondering for a moment how Koushuu knew about this. It was then he remembered Koushuu was there with the assistant manager and vice captain Kuramochi when the three of them confronted Suzuki about his words regarding a certain second-year pitcher.

"Huh? Seidou's last year games?" Seto asked, noticing something among his friend's words. "Then how about the spring tournament?"

"No need for that, since Sawamura-senpai didn't get to play."

And it was those words that Seto finally realized the meaning behind those words, and he probably also realized the meaning and the intended purpose behind the instructions of the assistant manager. So he wasn't really that surprised when Koushuu suddenly walked slightly faster to stand in the way of Suzuki, facing him with a slightly fierce but determined expression.

"Suzuki," Koushuu called out to the first-year pitcher, hoping to get the attention he needed. Sure enough, Suzuki immediately gave all his attention when he realized Koushuu was looking at him with a serious expression, one that Koushuu rarely showed to anyone. "I need to know from you; what are your thoughts right now, after watching those videos?"

"My thoughts?"

"Your thoughts on Sawamura-senpai."

Suzuki slightly jumped in surprise at the mention of the name, and then looked down in guilt and shame as he remembered his words from yesterday.

"…Well?"

"I…I truly regretted saying those words," Suzuki said as he continued to look down and began to remember the scenes he watched from last night's videos. "Kominato-senpai was kind enough to watch some of the videos with me while explaining a few things about Sawamura-senpai which I had no idea about. Zono-senpai had refused to talk to me at all in the room, but that was expected I guess… I was really rude.

"But!" Suzuki suddenly looked up at Koushuu with a determined expression as well, although it looked like he was about to cry in guilt and shame. "Why didn't Sawamura-senpai said anything?! Why didn't anyone of you who knew about all these never mention to me anything at all! If I had known about Sawamura-senpai's injuries then things would have been different! Do you have any idea how I felt when I remembered every words I said yesterday while I was watching those videos, and when Kominato-senpai explained to me thoroughly how did Sawamura-senpai managed to get this strong, only for all his efforts to go down the drain when that cross play happened during the fall tournament?

"And worse! It totally made me feel that no matter how much I work hard, how much efforts I put in, it's NOTHING at all compared to those put in by Sawamura-senpai! It totally feels like my tough training is NOTHING at all compared to those rough times Sawamura-senpai had to go through in order to become one of the pitchers in the regulars' lineup!

"And the one I find it the most irritating, is that why the hell would one cheer for his rival when he's depressed and there's a chance for him to be called away from the mound and letting himself be the one positioned there instead? Sawamura-senpai could be the only idiot I've seen in my entire life for having such a big and generous heart to do that! So now it means all the words I said last night was so dead wrong! If there's anyone sabotaging anyone here, it's ME, dammit!

"What the hell had I done?!" Suzuki shouted in frustration as he began to clench hard on his hair, feeling angry and frustrated on himself.

"Eh, Suzuki. Decide whether you're praising him or insulting him."

"Shut up, Seto!" Suzuki barked at the bespectacled first year, feeling his annoyance level rising. "Also, how come the two of you knew about the situation with Sawamura-senpai?"

"Ah, well, that's-" Seto was about to answer till he realized that his blonde friend had begun walking away. "Ah! Koushuu? Wait up!"

"What's wrong with Koushuu?" Suzuki asked, unable to comprehend what was going on with the first-year catcher. Seto, on the other hand, scratched his head and sighed in defeat as he saw his blonde friend continued walking away, with no intention of waiting for the two left standing behind him.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about him… I'm more worried about you, since I can't tell if he's still angry with you."

"Huh?" Suzuki looked at Seto in slight shock and worry; he didn't think he could withstand another Seidou baseball team member to start hating him.

"Well first, to answer your question," Seto started explaining to the curious pitcher as he also started walking, followed by Suzuki who walked beside him. "We were there during the final match of the fall tournament between Seidou and Yakushi."

"You mean…"

"Yeah, we were there when the whole commotion with Sawamura-senpai happened. Although Koushuu and I were able to tell that something was very wrong with Sawamura-senpai's pitching and behavior through the match since the sixth inning, there was practically nothing we could do. And there wasn't really any way for us to find out what happened to Sawamura-senpai after that match so actually we didn't catch on with what happened to Sawamura-senpai till we went to watch the spring invitational tournament."

"I see… Then why is Koushuu…?"

"Koushuu was really disappointed when he realized Sawamura-senpai won't be playing for a while when we entered Seidou. He was really looking forward to catching Sawamura-senpai's pitches; and this was one of the main reasons he decided to come to Seidou after all."

"Sawamura-senpai's pitches?"

"Didn't u saw them in the videos? Well actually, I wasn't able really see it myself, but I think Koushuu managed to see something behind those unique pitches of Sawamura-senpai since the first time Koushuu saw him play in Seidou's first game against Teitou in the fall tournament. That's why he was really looking forward to be given a chance to catch his pitches, saying something about Sawamura-senpai being an interesting pitcher or something. Oh well, sometimes even I couldn't really tell what he was thinking in that mind of his; Koushuu's been like this since I've known him.

"But what I am trying to say is, Koushuu really respected Sawamura-senpai from the bottom of his heart; it was probably why he was pretty mad when you said those words about Sawamura-senpai yesterday. And I think that you said some pretty harsh words to senpai in front of Koushuu didn't you? Well, a word of advice, apologize to Sawamura-senpai when you have the chance. I doubt Seidou is the type of team to be able to forgive someone who insults one of their team members that easily, but at least it's a start."

Seto placed his hand on Suzuki's shoulder as he said those words, hoping it could be some form of comfort and encouragement to his friend and teammate before trotting away quickly to catch up with his blonde friend. Meanwhile, Suzuki turned and stared guiltily at the shrinking view of the back of the first-year catcher in front of him, with Seto's words ringing in his mind causing him to feel slightly unsettled as he saw Koushuu continued walking away.

_****Line Break****_

"Koushuu! Suzuki!" Said first-years immediately turned to face the source of the voice as they heard their name, immediately recognizing the voice belonging to their loud-mouthed senior who was currently walking slowly towards them with his usual big smile on his face. But he had no idea that the smile on his face actually caused his first-year pitcher to jump and feel more guilty and awkward as he saw the senior that was his current main problem approaching him. "Sorry, Koushuu. Think you can help warm up Suzuki in the bullpen while I play catch with Harucchi? I'll head over once I'm done with my warm up and discussion of a few things with Miyuki regarding his training menu."

"Training menu?" Suzuki said in bewilderment as he heard those words, while Koushuu immediately understood them. Suzuki couldn't almost believe what he was hearing. "B-But Sawamura-senpai."

"Yeah?" Sawamura paused; he had started to walk away towards the other practice field at the other side of the shed.

_You mean to tell me that you decided to forget about what happened yesterday and continue to train with me as if nothing had happened? _

"I-I-I," Suzuki, still stunned by his training in charge's words, found himself unable to say out coherent words for Sawamura to understand. "About yesterday, I-"

"I understand, Sawamura-senpai," Koushuu promptly replied before Suzuki could say anything, and he quickly dragged the confused Suzuki away before he could say anything more.

"Ah! Koushuu! Wait!"

However, despite his struggles and arguments, Koushuu didn't seem to have any intention to answer him back. Sawamura, confused by what happened, wanted to enquire Suzuki's intention but decided not to for the time being as he knew that Haruichi was waiting for him already. He then made his way there as quickly as he was able to.

"Hey Koushuu! You hear me? I got something to say to Sawamura-senpai!"

Again, no answer was given.

"Hey Koushuu! I need to-"

"Oi Suzuki!" A loud and fierce voice suddenly called out to the first year pitcher, causing Suzuki to jump and slightly cower when he recognized the voice and felt the fierce aura coming towards him from the batting practice field beside him.

"Z-Zono-senpai?" and true enough, Maezono was standing there on the other side of the fence, glaring at him with a tightening grip on his bat.

"Quit your blabbering and go do your warm up!"

Suzuki, who wasn't prepared to be shouted at by his vice-captain, immediately flinched and stepped back in dismay. And it was then he realized not only Maezono, but a few of the seniors behind him was slightly glaring at him, causing Suzuki to instinctively hide behind Koushuu like a child cowering and hiding behind a shield. Koushuu sighed as he saw the whole episode.

"Drop it, Zono," Maezono immediately turned towards Kuramochi who was standing beside him, getting ready to bat the ball shot from the pitching machine. As soon as Kuramochi managed to hit on the first pitch, Kuramochi shot Maezono a neutral look and shook his head, silently indicating to his fellow vice-captain not to continue with the current situation. After a silent staring competition between the two, the first baseman finally took a deep breath in surrender and turned to head back to practise his batting.

Seeing that Maezono finally decided to step down, Koushuu turned to look at the first year pitcher, still looking slightly shocked and frightened to the point he was slightly shivering.

But it seemed it was all Koushuu needed to quietly drag the stunned and frightened Suzuki away to the bullpen.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everyone, two pairs of eyes were watching the whole episode as well from a distance away.

"What the heck is wrong with Zono-senpai?"

"…Who knows?"

"…You know something about this, don't you?"

"I don't know what are you talking about. C'mon. Kominato is waiting for you at field B already."

"…Miyuki," Sawamura attempted to glare at the said person when he saw that Miyuki was refusing to properly answer his question and beginning to walk away. The second year pitcher had no choice but to follow, still questioning the catcher despite knowing he probably wouldn't give him the answer he wanted.

_****Line Break****_

"So, have you managed to calm down?"

"…Yeah. Sorry about that, Koushuu. I just didn't expect-"

"I think you should expect more of such things happening to you," Koushuu said he continued putting on his leg guards. "Considering what you said in front of most of the first string seniors yesterday, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you."

Suzuki narrowed his eyes and lowered his head in shame, knowing what the catcher said was right. It shouldn't be a wonder to him why the seniors decided to change their attitude towards him. He shouldn't really think that things would be easy for him right now after that incident yesterday; it was already a miracle that no one had grouped together to punish him physically or verbally and that he was allowed to continue to join in the practice despite the attitude he had shown yesterday. He sighed in frustration as he began to understand his current situation even more.

"Well, putting that aside," Koushuu said as he put on his catcher's head gear and grab the helmet before opening the entrance door of the bullpen. "You should focus on your practice right now. Sawamura-senpai comes later. Understand, Suzuki?"

"…I understand," Suzuki replied as he took a deep breath to calm his nerves before following Koushuu into the bullpen.

"Ah Koushuu! Good timing! Think you can help catch Furuya's pitches? Miyuki's not here yet; seems like he was called by the coach to discuss some important matters."

Suzuki jumped when he heard a voice from the bullpen belonging to third year catcher Ono. It was then Suzuki and Koushuu looked around to see two catchers, Ono and Kariba, and two pitchers, Furuya and Kawakami were currently practising in the bullpen, with Kariba catching for Kawakami. Ono, on the other hand was watching Furuya throwing his pitches onto a net.

"Sorry, Ono-senpai, Furuya-senpai. I was instructed by Sawamura-senpai to catch Suzuki's pitches till he comes. Think you can wait till then?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing upon hearing the name they dreaded hearing and then immediately turned to confirm that Suzuki was indeed there in the bullpen beside Koushuu. Suzuki flinched upon the silent but disagreeing stare from everyone in the bullpen except for Koushuu, mentally cursing and willing himself to calm down.

"Is it true?" Suzuki looked up and stared at Ono in shock upon the question. "That Sawamura was the one that instructed Suzuki to pitch in the bullpen?"

"…Yeah," Koushuu promptly answered, hoping Suzuki would keep quiet. "Miyuki-senpai should be coming along with Sawamura-senpai too so please just wait a while longer, Furuya-senpai."

"Unless," Koushuu then continued speaking as he pointed towards Ono. "Ono-senpai, would you like to catch Suzuki's pitches in my place instead? Then I can help catch for Furuya-senpai."

"Ah, that's-"

"It's fine," Everyone in the bullpen blinked in surprise upon hearing Furuya suddenly speaking up. "It's fine, I'll wait for Miyuki-senpai. Meanwhile, I think I'll head to practise my batting instead. I'll come back when Miyuki-senpai arrives." And with that, Furuya threw one last ball onto the net before making his way to the door of the bullpen.

"Ah wait, Furuya. There's no need to-"

"It's fine. I wouldn't want to stay here any longer anyway." And with that Furuya made his way out of the bullpen, throwing one last glance at Suzuki, causing the first-year to flinch, before he left and slammed the door closed. Everyone left in the bullpen could only watch in silence as Furuya continued to walk away.

And probably thanks to Furuya, the atmosphere in the bullpen became tensed and awkward, making Suzuki lightly bite his thumb in frustration and nervousness. _Shit, he's still angry._

"I'm sorry," and everyone turned to look at Kawakami this time as he held onto his cap brim with his head lowered. "I think I would like to join Furuya in batting practice too. So if you don't mind, I'll like to take my leave." And with that Kawakami also began to head towards the door, still lowering his head and holding on to his cap brim as if he refused to meet anyone's eyes. Awkward silence filled the bullpen again, making everyone feeling really uncomfortable.

Remembering the last glance given to him by Furuya, Suzuki realized that it was probably him that was making the whole atmosphere in the bullpen so tensed and awkward. Hence, unable to bear the tension any longer, Suzuki took a deep breath and finally picked up the courage he needed to stand in front of Kawakami with a determined expression.

"I'm sorry, Kawakami-senpai, everyone," Suzuki apologized as he bowed down to his seniors. "Please stay here and continue your practice, senpai. If anyone here should be leaving I believe that would be me. So please stay and continue your practice, senpai. I'll take my leave-"

"That's not it, Suzuki."

"Huh?" Suzuki looked at the third-year pitcher in confusion upon hearing those words.

"It's not what you think. Furuya and I are not really blaming you here. So please continue to follow Sawamura's instructions and practise your pitching here, okay?"

"But senpai-"

"It's fine," Kawakami assured the first-year as he placed his hand on his shoulder, still refusing to look up and meet his eyes. "Just work hard in your practice alright?"

And with that Kawakami quickly left the bullpen, with Suzuki still trying to catch up and stop him only to be interfered by Koushuu and Ono.

Meanwhile, Kawakami, who was making his way to batting practice, paused in his steps right outside the bullpen as he saw another pair of foot in front of him.

"Nori…" the third-year pitcher immediately recognized the voice, causing him to tighten his hold on his cap brim even more and to start trembling as he tried hard to hold back his feelings.

"I'm sorry, Kuramochi," Kawakami said as he quickly ran past the shortstop. _Because if there's anyone I'm blaming, I've no one else to blame other than myself._

Kuramochi, who didn't fail to notice the streams of tears beginning to fall on Kawakami's face, narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists in bitterness as he remembered his team's agony. Awkward silence once again followed, till finally someone decided to make the first move.

"…Suzuki," said pitcher gasped and jumped in surprise upon the voice calling his name.

"…Yes?" Suzuki looked towards the shortstop outside the bullpen, acknowledging the call from his vice captain. "Kuramochi-senpai?"

"Now do you understand why we won't let you mention anything about yesterday and anything about Sawamura's injuries to you or any of the first-years right now?" Kuramochi asked as he turned, back facing the first-year pitcher.

"If only I had continued to endure and play longer in that match.

"If only I had made the effort to recover faster or insist on playing for the team.

"If only I had noticed that something was wrong.

"If only I had let someone know about his situation.

"If only I had done something about it.

_Then probably that Bakamura wouldn't need to go through such a hardship._

"Erm, Kuramochi-senpai?" Suzuki called out to his vice captain, confused by the words shared from him. _What are you trying to say?_

"Although your words yesterday did made us really angry at you for being very rude to Sawamura, no one is really blaming you for what happened. Because probably right now instead of blaming you, we're all blaming ourselves for what happened instead. Thanks to your words yesterday, most of us were dreadfully reminded on our weaknesses and helplessness during Sawamura's mishap and it was where everyone started blaming themselves for what happened. And everyone probably feel worse when Sawamura was unable to take part in the Senbatsu and the upcoming Kanto tournament with us."

Suzuki could only listen and take in those words from his senior, finally realizing the consequences and the feelings he had triggered thanks to his words he openly declared yesterday. He didn't think just words from him alone had actually affected all the key players in the team mentally this much.

"I-I'm sorry, Kuramochi-senpai," Suzuki apologized as he felt that it was only thing he could do at the moment. "I didn't mean for all these to happen."

"…It's fine," the shortstop said as he began to walk away from the bullpen, worrying about the other two pitchers. "Sorry Okumura, but I'll leave things to you again."

"…Understood." Koushuu replied as he turned to look at the pitcher left in the bullpen, seeing Suzuki watching with worry and guilt at the departure of his vice captain.

_****Line Break****_

"So, Eijun-kun," Haruichi said as he threw the ball back gently towards the second-year pitcher who easily caught the ball and threw back to the second baseman. "I heard you shared a room with Miyuki-senpai last night, is it true?"

Sawamura immediately blushed upon hearing those words from his best friend, and then finding himself unable to catch an easy ball threw towards him as he flustered in panic.

"W-W-W-Who did you hear this from?"

"Kuramochi-senpai and Seto-kun were talking about it this morning during breakfast."

"What?! During breakfast?!" Sawamura yelled, panicking even more. "How many people were there when they were talking about it?"

"Ah, don't worry about it," Haruichi laughed lightly as he walked past Sawamura to pick up the ball the pitcher had missed and landed behind him. "They only whispered that to me when I asked Kuramochi-senpai about your whereabouts. Some of us were pretty worried when you were late for breakfast."

"A-Ah, I see," Sawamura cursed at himself mentally for panicking for nothing, although he was still worried about the chances that people might overhear them since they mentioned the topic in an opened area like the canteen.

"Well then, I think that's all for your warm-up," Haruichi declared as he passed the ball back to Sawamura. "Shall we make our way then?"

Sawamura nodded in agreement, and slowly made his way to the entrance with the second baseman. It was then he noticed two people running through the entrance of the baseball field he was at and then running towards him and Haruichi.

"Suzuki? And Koushuu?" the two second-years looked at each other in confusion before turning to face the duo who just entered the field stopped in front of them, with Suzuki bending down and panting hard while Koushuu just stood behind him, much less breathless then Suzuki.

"What's wrong, you two?" Sawamura couldn't help but asked in curiosity and confusion at the first-year duo. "Shouldn't you be warming up in the bullpen?"

"A-About…that…" Suzuki said as he tried to catch his breath. "We'll leave that aside first…"

"Suzuki?" And Sawamura was not prepared to be facing a Suzuki who suddenly stood up straight and was looking straight into his eyes with determination he first time saw from the first-year pitcher.

"Sawamura-senpai! There's something I really need to tell you!"

**To Be Continued**

First, please allow me to apologize, especially to cjoycoolio and Kanrei, for saying that I regretted introducing Miyuki's father. I didn't expect the positive responses for the father and the relationship between him and Miyuki and I was probably losing confidence in myself when I realized I still have not planned a direction for this fiction yet. I had planned for this story to be an oneshot initially so right now I kind of been planning my chapters on the way without knowing where this story is going and how long it's gonna be. Hence I'm sorry about that and hope you would be able to bear with me as I may take my time to plan for this fic and may not be able to update as soon as many of you expected. I'm not sure if I'm already rushing the plot and I really hope that the pace of the story so far is comfortable to all of you.

Second, please, do review. Would really love to know your thoughts and opinions about the story so far. Let me know if you think I'm rushing the plot or the pace of the story is too fast or slow. I also need to know if I still managed to keep everyone in-character, especially since this is my first DnA fanfic after all.

Last, I really hope you all had enjoyed reading my story so far and I'll do my best to upload the next chapter soon!

Till next time,  
Ink-chan :)


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Once again, thank you all for the reviews! And also, sorry for not mentioning this till now, I really appreciate all the favorites and followings for this story as well!

Thank you all so much for the support given! :) 

Sorry and thanks for all the patience for waiting for this chapter. 

And once again, sorry for all mistakes made. Feel free to let me know if you find one, especially for English spelling and grammatical mistakes.

Without further ado, enjoy~!

**It's Okay**

**Chapter 7**

The sound of a ball slammed into the mitt momentarily echoed in the bullpen, followed by sounds of panting from the pitcher.

"How's that now?" Suzuki couldn't help but ask with hope and expectations at the blonde catcher who just kept staring into his mitt and the ball inside, contemplating with a serious face.

_As usual, he's got speed… but that's all he has. _

"It's still too high," Koushuu replied, finally looking up at the disappointed pitcher. "If it's against strong and powerful hitters like our Seidou batting lineup, you would be totally wiped out very easily."

"It's that bad?" Suzuki whined in shock, and then turned quickly to his other training in charge. "Where do you think I've done wrong, Sawamura-senpai?"

However, silence was the only response he received, as he realized that his senior pitcher didn't seem to be putting his attention onto him. Instead, he seemed to be focused on the ground instead, eyes not blinking at all, indicating he was currently in a world of his own.

"Sawamura-senpai?" the first year pitcher called again, still receiving no response. "Sawamura-senpai!" It was only at the third call where Sawamura finally blinked once in surprise before looking up at his fellow pitcher while scratching his head with an apologetic expression.

"Ah, so sorry, Suzuki. What did you just said?"

"… Are you alright, senpai?" Suzuki asked when he realized that his senior was not concentrating or being himself. He then gasped softly when he realized something. "Is it because of what I've said to senpai just now? As expected, it was a bad idea to tell you those kind of things?"

"Ah, no! That's not it!" Sawamura quickly replied firmly, hoping to stop any misunderstanding from his junior. "I was just thinking about some stuffs; it's not your fault! Really! You don't have to worry about what you've said to me just now!"

"But-"

"In fact, I'm actually glad you told me about it," Sawamura said as he raised his hand to ruffle Suzuki's hair with a wide sincere smile on his face. "So thank you, and don't worry about it too much alright?"

And it was at that moment Suzuki blushed upon feeling the gentle caress on his hair and also upon looking at the smile from his senior, feeling embarrassed but glad to hear that his senior wasn't angry or feeling unwell because of him. Amazed by his senior's kindness, it was at that moment he promised to himself that from now on he would properly and sincerely respect his training in charge. Still, he couldn't help but lower his head slightly in embarrassment at the treatment he received. It totally felt like he was a child getting encouragement from his mother.

_I totally feel like a kid now. _

Meanwhile, at the other side of the bullpen, Koushuu could almost smile upon seeing the interaction between the two pitchers. If it was Suzuki on the day before yesterday, Suzuki would have criticize his training in charge for not concentrating on practice and probably would question if the senior pitcher really had the heart and resolve to teach him properly or not. But right now, things had changed. After the incident with Miyuki and learning the truth about Sawamura, the blonde catcher could really tell that the attitude in the first year pitcher had changed for the better, and the future between the two pitchers had finally brightened. Koushuu couldn't help but feel relieved as his main troubles at the moment seemed to be finally resolved.

Well, probably except for one…

Finally having the courage to raise his head, Suzuki was about to sincerely and determinedly thank his senior for the encouragement but failed to do so. Instead, he immediately shrieked and stepped back in shock and fear while his eyes were on something behind the second-year pitcher.

Sawamura, surprised by his junior's reaction, was about to ask what was wrong but stopped and stilled when he sensed an immense and menacing aura behind him, sending a chill down his spine. And after a few moments, Sawamura finally turned slowly behind, only to be faced with one of his worse nightmares. It seemed to be the same to Suzuki as well.

"M-M-Miyuki?" Sawamura nervously called out to his captain, who seemed to have just entered the bullpen together with Furuya and Ono. But the reason for him being nervous was the fact that Miyuki was smiling way too widely for anyone's comfort, especially since he was obviously giving out a menacing killing intent and aura that would scare anyone away.

"Hey there, Sa—wa—mu—ra—," said pitcher paled as he heard Miyuki calling his last name in the lengthy way. It promised nothing good.

Fearing for his life, Suzuki quickly hid himself behind his training in charge while Sawamura raised both hands in surrender. "Miyuki? M-May I ask why are you angry right now?"

"Hmm? What are you talking about?" Miyuki said as his smile seemed to become even wider and more forced. "I am not angry at all~"

And it was at that moment every occupant in the bullpen gave their captain the skeptical faces, except for Koushuu whose face remained neutral. But their thoughts were all the same.

_No, no, no. You're DEFINITELY angry._

Koushuu sighed as he watched the whole scene, being the only one who understood the situation. Ono, Furuya and Suzuki would probably catch on quick if they were aware of the relationship between the captain and the moving ball second-year pitcher.

"Where's Kawakami-senpai? I'm presuming he's coming too since you're here, Ono-senpai." Koushuu quickly asked as he looked towards said catcher, ignoring the current atmosphere influenced by Miyuki.

"Ah, he should be on his way from batting practice," Ono quickly replied, unable to withstand the silent tensed atmosphere, though he was still confused behind his captain's upset mood.

"…I see," Koushuu said as he turned towards the other pitcher who had just entered the bullpen. "Furuya-senpai, is it okay if Suzuki continued his training here in the bullpen?"

Shocked by those words, Sawamura and Suzuki immediately looked at the blonde in disbelief at his straightforwardness. Miyuki, on the other hand, dismissed his aura and killing intent before watching the first-year catcher with a frown, slightly confused by what he meant.

Furuya, upon being asked the question, silently kept staring into the calm and neutral eyes of the blonde catcher, who could clearly see the disagreement and discontent in those eyes of the rumored monster pitcher.

"W-Wait a minute, Koushuu," Sawamura quickly called out to his roommate, worried over the tensed atmosphere and staring contest he was currently having with his rival. He didn't expect Koushuu to be asking Furuya that question so bluntly especially in front of the first-year in concern as well. Sawamura had already heard from the first-year pitcher about what happened with Furuya several minutes ago in the bullpen, where Furuya unexpectedly left the bullpen in order to train his batting. Sawamura narrowed his eyes as he turned and looked at his rival. Such a course of action totally bewildered Sawamura.

Because, for someone who had been competing with him for the mound and for someone who had been urging to pitch for every second during the games and training, Furuya volunteering to leave the bullpen on his own accord was something he was sure that would stun anyone who knew the monster pitcher in the team. Sawamura continued to study Furuya, who seemed to realize the stares from his fellow pitcher and quickly hid his blue eyes from the pair of brown eyes staring at him by lowering his cap brim. It was then Furuya began to step forward, seemingly approaching the moving ball pitcher.

On the other hand, as he watched Furuya coming closer towards him, Sawamura couldn't help but feel that he was responsible for his rival pitcher's rejection to the bullpen, to the others, and also to the pitching that he loved the most. Before he heard the situation among the seniors from Suzuki, Sawamura was still oblivious to what was happening around him and would be very confused right now. After contemplating the situation before him, Sawamura clenched his fist in determination and looked up at his rival.

"Furuya, can we talk-"

However, his rival didn't seem to have any intention of acknowledging him, as seen by his actions where he just walked past Sawamura nonchalantly and stood in position at one of the pitcher's post in the bullpen. Furuya then picked up the rosin bag that was dumped somewhere on the ground near him, and began to toss the bag on his right hand as he silently waited for Miyuki to get into his position as well.

"…Oi, Furuya," Sawamura began to tremble slightly as he saw the current ace pitcher's actions and attitude towards him. "Don't ignore me, you jerk!" The currently injured pitcher exclaimed fiercely as he turned and pointed his finger at his rival, who still kept tossing the rosin bag, as if refusing to acknowledge Sawamura. This caused Sawamura to flap his arms in annoyance, cursing his rival loudly with words he could come out with at the moment.

_As usual, he's just go ahead and ignore whatever he doesn't want to see or hear…_ Koushuu sighed as he saw the whole interaction between the two rivals. Miyuki, on the other hand, began to chuckle, seemingly enjoying the scene before him while Ono palmed his face. Suzuki seemed to be the only one in stun upon seeing the scene before him.

"Suzuki," said first-year looked up at the blonde in surprise when he was called, breaking him out of his trance. "I don't think you're going to get any better in your pitching just by practicing here in the bullpen. Why not do some conditionings by running first? Running helps to strengthen the lower part of your body, which I believe, is the foundation for a pitcher. Am I right, Sawamura-senpai?"

"Ah, yes!" Sawamura replied as he registered in the catcher's words and stopped getting all riled up thanks to Furuya. "Suzuki, you can use field B to run your laps. Koushuu and I will join you later over there."

"U-Understood…" And with that, the first year pitcher quickly made his way out of the bullpen, but not before turning and giving one last glance to everyone, who all had occupied themselves with their own activities.

Well, all except for one, who also had turned his blue eyes to stare at him, with the same eyes as the ones he gave before this when he left the bullpen.

_****Line Break****_

"One possible reason that the current training menu won't work well for Suzuki because Chris-senpai probably created this menu in consideration with your abnormal body flexibility last year."

"Ah! Is that so…"

"We should probably start right from the basics. We can still use these training menus as the basis, but we should probably review and change them according to Suzuki's needs. Right now Suzuki's foundations are pretty weak so we should start from there."

"I see… Then, where should we start?"

"Well, first, we could try…"

Miyuki tried hard to tune out the voices from the other side of the bullpen, although irritation still continued to grow inside of him. He couldn't help but turn to glance for a moment at the pair having a discussion at the other side of the bullpen after throwing the ball back to Furuya and crouched down again, getting ready to catch another forkball from the second-year pitcher. But still, despite knowing that he had to concentrate fully on Furuya right now, Miyuki still felt frustrated from being denied, especially from Sawamura himself.

"_Well then, shall we get started on the review of his training menu, Sawamura-senpai?"_

"_Huh?"_

"_Hey wait a minute! I thought I'm the one who will be reviewing the menu with Sawamura today."_

"…_I had thought it will make more sense for me to review his training menu instead, since I'm the one who has been catching his pitches for the past few weeks."_

"_Ah, I see… now that you mention it, it does make more sense…"_

"_Sawamura?!"_

"_Sorry, Miyuki. I'll discuss Suzuki's training menu with Koushuu instead. Meanwhile, why don't you concentrate on Furuya and Nori-senpai's pitches and training?"_

"_Wait a minute, that's-"_

"_If you really want to help, we can have you check over the menu once we're done. That should be fine for you, shouldn't it, Miyuki-senpai?"_

"…_That's…"_

"_Now that's decided, shall we? Sawamura-senpai?"_

"_Sure~!"_

Miyuki couldn't help but twitched in annoyance upon remembering those words from his boyfriend. _That Bakamura. What's with that 'sure~!' It pisses me off! Seems like time for another punishment tonight, hmm? _Miyuki smirked upon that thought, beginning to brainstorm different ways to punish his boyfriend later while being able to catch another ball from Furuya; the sound of the ball slamming into the mitt echoed through the bullpen. However, Miyuki frowned almost immediately after that as he realized something from the ball he had just caught.

"Oi, Furuya," Miyuki said as he stood up from his crouching position. "I asked for a low forkball, not a high fastball. How could you get the signs wrong? And also, I thought I told you before the importance of pacing yourself. Have you forgotten all these too?"

"…I'm sorry," Furuya apologized as he raised his glove, silently asking for the ball. "Please, let me try again."

Miyuki silently agreed, throwing the ball back to Furuya. However, he wasn't really prepared for the current ace to miss catching the easy ball that was thrown back to him; he had thought that he had already overcome that weakness of his already. "Oi, oi, Furuya. What's wrong with you?"

"…Sorry," Miyuki sighed as he watched Furuya walking towards the dropped ball to pick it up, wondering what was wrong with the monster pitcher. Today, he had been throwing him fastballs which he could tell that Furuya had made no attempts to control the strength he used; he was just throwing with nothing but raw power that would usually drain him a lot faster than he expected. Not only that, the course for his forkball and splitters seemed to be going out of control as well. All these were the mistakes that Furuya was supposed to resolve months ago since the start of the fall tournament. "…Do you want to stop here for today, Furuya?"

"Ah, no. Please let me continue pitching."

"I don't mind continuing, but you don't seem to be in form today."

"…"

…_He's ignoring me again…_

"Miyuki!" said catcher blinked in surprise upon hearing the voice, immediately turning to face the source of the voice.

"Oh. What's wrong, Sawamura?" Miyuki replied the approaching moving ball pitcher and blonde catcher who were holding on to some old scrolls he recognized and a clipboard.

"It's about Suzuki's training menu," Sawamura said as he placed the old scrolls aside and then getting the clipboard from Koushuu. "Here's the reviewed training menu. Help me look through it, will you?"

"Hmm?" Miyuki responded as he began to slightly smirk. "Since you're asking for my help, shouldn't you be saying, 'please~'?"

"Oi, stop playing around-"

"Don't forget, I'm a senior, you know?"

"Urgh! Fine!" Sawamura finally surrendered, giving a glare to his irritating captain and boyfriend. "Can you help me look through and check everything in the reviewed training I have for Suzuki, PLEASE?"

"Haha! I was just joking, Ei—jun—." and Sawamura immediately blushed upon hearing his first name being called suggestively by Miyuki like this, especially in front of some of their team members who weren't aware of their relationship.

"Miyuki you bastar-"

"Okumura," Miyuki suddenly called for the blonde catcher as he walked towards Sawamura, holding on to the pitcher's arm suddenly while continued walking away. "Catch for Furuya while I check through this, will you?"

Koushuu silently watched his senior pitcher being pulled away by his fellow catcher, and then went and stood at the position Miyuki was at moments ago, facing Furuya with a serious expression. Furuya frowned and stared back as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead with his arm, watching the first-year catcher putting on his headgear. Although Furuya felt dissatisfied with Miyuki switching with Koushuu, he knew that he couldn't really protest to it, since Furuya made a shocking discovery this spring that other than Miyuki and the graduated Miyauchi, there was another catcher in Seidou who was able to catch his pitches. He could still remember that episode when Koushuu was able to catch his heavy and speedy fastball easily, just like how Miyuki was the first time the captain caught for him in his first year.

The pitcher soon set himself into position, getting ready to throw his pitch towards the catcher but unexpectedly, Koushuu still had not crouched down to position after putting on his headgear. Instead, he was just standing there with his throwing hand in his giant mitt, giving the impression that he had no intention to continue practicing with the current ace pitcher. Furuya blinked and continued to stare the blonde in confusion.

"Furuya-senpai," Koushuu unexpectedly called out to his senior, startling Furuya. "If I were to start catching for you right now, can you promise me to stop getting agitated every time Sawamura-senpai mention about Suzuki? Because I don't think you are able to concentrate and throw your best like this."

And it was at that moment every occupant in the bullpen turned to stare at the ace pitcher, shocked by the comments from the blonde catcher causing everyone to stop what they were doing. Kawakami had suddenly paused in his pitching and Sawamura and Miyuki had stopped their discussion. _Suzuki? Is that the reason Furuya's not performing well today?_

Furuya's eyes widened upon hearing that blunt comment from the first-year, as if he himself was surprised by his own behavior. "I'm not really-"

"I know you may still be angry with Suzuki due to yesterday's incident," Koushuu quickly interrupted, knowing that his senior may not be aware of his anger himself. "But I hope that you won't bring that anger to your training and interrupt your pacing. It's going to be bad for you and the team, especially since technically, you're still holding on to the ace number. I don't think anyone in the team will put their trust onto an ace who lets his emotions get in his way of play."

And upon hearing those words, Furuya jolted, eyes widening even more as he took in those words into his mind and heart, which began to keep replaying in his mind as he froze on the spot. As Sawamura watched Furuya's frozen state, he tried to approach him, but was stopped by Miyuki who shook his head to him, hoping he would understand his gesture.

_Even if you go to him, there's nothing you can do. _

To Miyuki's relief, the moving ball pitcher seemed to understand the need to leave Furuya alone. Even Ono and Kawakami who was also in the bullpen at the moment seemed to understand. Sawamura, who was tensed up due to worry for Furuya, managed to calm down as shown by his relaxed shoulders and posture, thus allowing Miyuki to loosen his hold he had on his boyfriend. However, that didn't mean he was not worried for his rival, so he could only continued to watch in silent at the battery between the blonde and the raven.

"…It's time for you to realize, Furuya-senpai," Koushuu finally said after several seconds of silence. "That you're standing on the mound as the team's representative. That number you bear on your back is not as light as you thought."

And Furuya jolted again, upon hearing those familiar words. He remembered hearing those kinds of words before; he remembered hearing similar words as these before, in a particular match* where he had let his stubbornness and emotions got in his way, causing him to ignore his catcher's instructions and play right into the opponents' hand… With a huge price to pay. He could now clearly remember his regrets from paying this huge price for learning an important lesson.

"…I understand," Furuya finally answered back to his current battery partner after some time. "I'm sorry. Please allow me to pitch some more."

And everyone was able to sigh in relief when they saw Koushuu finally putting on his catcher's helmet and crouched down, punching his fist into his mitt and stretching out both of his hand before positioning his mitt. Everyone in the bullpen still continued to watch the duo, anticipating patiently for Furuya's next pitch.

And within a few minutes, another echo of the ball slamming into the mitt was heard, and Miyuki was probably the only one who smiled upon seeing the smoke rising from Koushuu's mitt.

_****Line Break****_

"Do you mind if I ask something?" Suzuki asked as he looked through his new training menu.

"Sure, what is it?"

"What's MB over here?" Suzuki pointed to the said words on the list he had in his hand, giving the puzzled expression to his senior.

"Oh. MB stands for medicine ball," Sawamura said as he turned and head into the bench, bending down to retrieve a slightly large weighted brown-colored ball before turning to the first year pitcher who panicked slightly when he saw that his injured senior was trying to carry something that seemed too heavy for him.

"Ah, senpai! Let me get that!" Suzuki exclaimed as he quickly went over to grab the ball from Sawamura before he could take another step. "So this is a medicine ball?"

"Yeah. It's important for your basic strength training, which also included other equipment like the dumbbell and resistance tubes which I think can be found here…" Sawamura said as he turned again with the intention of going into the bench to retrieve more equipment, but was stopped by his junior.

"It's alright, senpai! I'll get Koushuu or the managers' help in getting the necessary equipment. Besides, isn't it time for you to leave now? If not you'll be late for your rehabilitation."

"Ah! You're right!" Sawamura agreed as he stood up and walked out of the bench to retrieve his sling bag and haul it over his shoulder. "Then, I guess I'll leave things to you here. Feel free to ask Koushuu or Miyuki anything that you don't understand in the menu."

"Ah, alright. I understand…" _Though there's no way I'm asking Miyuki-senpai._ "Good work for the day, senpai!"

"Yeah, work hard on your training!" exclaimed Sawamura as he began to walk towards the field gates with the intention to leave training for the day. He was then spotted by some of the players who were practicing in the field behind him.

"Eijun-kun!" said pitcher turned towards the source as he heard his name, spotting a wave from a familiar pinked-hair player. "Good work for the day!"

"Yeah! Harucchi Do your best!" Sawamura shouted as he waved back with a big smile that everyone was familiar with. "Everyone too! Sawamura shall humbly take his leave! Good luck and do your best for practice!"

"Urgh, just leave already, Sawamura!" came an unexpected loud reply from Kanemaru, which caused Sawamura to flinch in shock.

"Y-Yes!"

"Ah, Sawamura!" said pitcher turned to spot a smirk from his captain that was currently playing catcher in the fielding practice. "Don't get lost on the way back! Need me to pick you up again?"

"No, I refused!" Sawamura quickly replied back loudly, not making any attempt to hide his irritation. If Miyuki had not added that playful smirk he had on his face while asking the question, there was a chance that the pitcher would have consider his offer seriously. But right now, he definitely refused. "I'm fine enough to find my way there and back, thank you very much!"

"Sawamura," another voice called again, but this one somehow sent a chill down the pitcher's spine, prompting to freeze in place as he turned slowly to the source at the field entrance.

"Ah, boss-I mean coach!" Sawamura quickly saluted as he shouted. "W-What can I do for you?"

"…Good work for the day," replied Coach Kataoka as he walked towards the field. "President Oota will be giving you a ride instead, so follow him."

"Yes! Well then, if you excuse me, I shall take my leave!" Sawamura yelled as he bowed down before finally leaving the field together with President Oota and assistant manager Takashima with the usual smile on his face.

"…As usual, Sawamura sure is energetic even though he's injured huh?" came a random comment from one of the players.

"And he's still noisy as usual," came a comment from a slightly irritated Kanemaru.

"Well, he's our idiotic mood maker after all," Miyuki commented as he smiled widely at Kanemaru, who felt slightly uncomfortable at that smile.

"Tch. If you asked me, he's being way too lively for someone who still can't really play yet."

"That goes to show that nothing can bring down Eijun-kun, isn't it?"

"…I wonder about that," the smile that was on Miyuki's face quickly disappeared upon hearing those words, staring at the one who just made that comment. All other players in the infield were also staring at him.

"What do you mean by that, Kuramochi-senpai?" Haruichi asked, not missing the hint of sadness behind those words.

"…Nothing," the shortstop answered before hesitating for some time. "Just saying that he's so stupid to the point that he probably won't even realize that he's being taken down."

"Huh?" the pink-haired second baseman could only look at his defense partner in confusion, while Miyuki, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes and studied his vice-captain in suspicion. For Kuramochi to be saying such things, it seemed that something about his boyfriend's mood and attitude was being implied from his roommate.

"Are you guys done talking?" a deep and firm voice from behind Miyuki immediately startled everyone on the field, prompting everyone to stop talking and look serious at the man who was holding on to a bat and a ball at the home base plate. "Training is still on, so make sure I can hear everyone of you calling out for the ball! You hear me?!"

"Yes, Coach!"

_****Line Break****_

"_Well then, now that Harucchi's not here, what happened, Suzuki?"_

"_Well, that's…"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_I-I…I'm sorry! Sawamura-senpai!" Suzuki apologized loudly as he bowed down on his senior, who stepped in surprise and confusion. Sawamura glanced towards the blonde catcher, hoping he would give him some sort of answers but Koushuu only kept quiet, not intending to say anything._

"_I'm so sorry for what I've said yesterday!" Suzuki exclaimed, still maintaining his bowed-down position. "What I've said yesterday was really rude; I've no excuses to use for this, but please at least hear me out!"_

"_Alright, alright, I understand," Sawamura quickly replied as he raised his hands in front of him in an attempt to calm the first year down. "I think it's not entirely your fault, since I'm quite an unreliable and undependable senior, and it's my first time trying to teach someone pitching too! So you don't have to really blame yourself."_

"_No, that's not true!" and it was at this point Suzuki finally stood up straight again, showing his determination again to his senior. "I'm really sorry for my rudeness yesterday, but I hope you can hear me out, for the sake of the team!"_

"_The team?" and this was where Sawamura gave his fullest attention into hearing his junior out._

"_Well, I'm sorry if I am going to sound really rude again, but…" and at this point Suzuki hesitated in answering, worried about the consequences he could cause. He didn't want an incident like yesterday happened again._

"Sawamura."

"_What is it, Suzuki? Just spill it!" Sawamura rushed the junior, unable to take the patience and suspense in the Suzuki's words._

"Sawamura?"

"_I think that the team is suffering, because of me and you!"_

"Sawamura?" said pitcher gasped and twitched in response to the calling and to the hand that was on his shoulder. It was then he realized he had been daydreaming into his own world while doing his last exercise. "Are you alright, Sawamura?"

"Ah, yes! I'm sorry!" Sawamura quickly turned and apologized to his therapist while continued pedaling on his stationary exercise bike. "What were you saying?"

"I'm saying, it's time for you to stop. Rehabilitation for today is finished. You may stopped and packed up for the day."

"Ah, alright," Sawamura immediately slowed down on his pedaling and stopped upon hearing those words while beginning to pant as he swung one of his legs to the other side of the exercise bike so that both legs would be on the same side. He then used the towel he had on his shoulders to wipe off his sweats on his face as he thanked his therapist. "Thank you for taking the time to monitor me in my rehabilitation again, Chris-senpai."

"It's not a problem, Sawamura, since I'm having my own sets of rehabilitation and physical workouts to complete here as well," Chris explained as he took out two bottles of water from his bag, one for the pitcher and one for himself. Sawamura thanked the former catcher again upon receiving the bottle. "In any case, what's wrong? You seem to be out of sorts today."

"Ah, well that's…" Sawamura, who was hesitating to reply, began to fidget with the bottle he had in his hand.

"Is it about the team?"

"Well, I guess it is…" and this time, Sawamura began to avoid any eye contact.

"Sawamura?"

"Yes! Chris-senpai?" replied Sawamura quickly this time as he suddenly straightened up rigidly to properly look at the former catcher, who just smiled as he looked at his former protégé.

"Do you need my help?"

Sawamura's eyes slightly widened as he heard those words, and began to think them through. After his retirement, Chris had decided to fully concentrate on his recovery of his torn shoulder by following a new set of training and workout menus created by his father before entering into college. After Sawamura's operation, the former catcher and manager of Seidou had volunteered to coach and monitor the injured pitcher in his rehabilitation, since he had to make his way frequently to the training center as well. Hence despite his retirement from Seidou, Sawamura was able to continue to keep a close contact with his former mentor, with Chris continuing to give advice and help Sawamura out with his baseball skills just like old times.

Sawamura could probably ask for some advice from Chris just like he always did this time, even when the latter had already just graduated from Seidou. But he didn't know if it was right for him to trouble his former mentor with problems from the current team that didn't really concern him anymore. Furthermore, as Sawamura contemplated his decision to talk to his mentor, he remembered.

"_Don't become someone like me, Sawamura."_

"_Do you want to end up becoming someone like me?"_

_Chris-senpai was also there during the whole time at the fall tournament… How did he also feel when he saw me in that state…? _

"…No," Sawamura finally answered as he concluded his thoughts with the question that he had wondered since his talk with his fellow moving ball pitcher. He then looked straight into his therapist's eyes, showing his determination. "No, I think I'm fine by my own, Chris-senpai. This is something I believe I have to settle on my own."

And that was where Chris noticed the tightening of Sawamura's hold on the bottle in the pitcher's hand.

Sawamura almost jumped and gave himself away under the constant studying stare he received from the former catcher, making him slightly nervous.

"…Then it's fine," Chris finally replied after studying Sawamura's expression for a few seconds. "I trust you after all, Sawamura. But don't forget, I'm always here if you need any help anytime."

And Sawamura's eyes widened again, surprised by the amount of trust he received from his former mentor, which he eventually and gladly took it also as a form of acknowledgement as well. "Yes! Thank you very much, Chris-senpai!"

"You're welcome," Chris said as he smiled and ruffled his former protégé's hair, where Sawamura also smiled back to his therapist widely, leading to a comfortable silence between the two former battery partners. But the silence was soon broken as Chris removed his hand. "By the way, Sawamura, did anything happen last night when I wasn't around?"

"Huh? Anything happened? Why did you ask that?" _If there were anything that happened last night that probably needs to be mentioned, that would probably be…_

"Because," Chris replied as he took out his mobile from his bag. "Miyuki had texted me last night, saying never to leave you alone again in the training center."

"Wha-"

"And also, to make sure you don't talk to any strangers as well."

"HUH?!" _What the hell! That Miyuki! Who does he think I am? A kid?!_

_****Line Break****_

Sounds of panting could be heard as he walked down the outside parameters of the baseball field. Sawamura turned in response, spotting one lone, tall raven running around the field.

"Furuya…" It had become a common habit for him and Furuya to be doing running after every practice at night, mainly to strengthen their lower body and train their stamina. Kawakami had also begun to join them everyday since last year's fall season as well, but Sawamura had begun to observe that the third-year pitcher seemed to stop coming for running for the past few months. _I wonder where's Nori-senpai now…_

After running for another three laps, Furuya finally slowed down and decided to stop, bending down and resting his hands on his knees as he panted heavily. He then used his arm to wipe away the sweat on his face, almost cursing himself for forgetting to bring along a towel for his running.

As if his prayers were answered, a towel suddenly appeared in front of his face, surprising him as he turned to see whose arm below the towel belonged to. His surprise didn't come to an end when he saw his rival pitcher giving his usual wide smile as he offered the towel.

"Good work for the day."

"…Ah. Thank you," Furuya said as he hesitantly accepted the towel offered, but instead of wiping on his face immediately, he stared hard at the towel instead, as if contemplating something. "…Did you just use this towel?"

"It's a clean one! I didn't use it at all!"

"Ah I see," Furuya said as he finally used the blue towel to wipe away the sweat on his face. "Did you just come back from rehabilitation?"

"Not really. I saw you running when I came back, so I went to take a new and clean towel for you; thought you might need it. Oh. And also, this." Sawamura then offered a bottle of water to Furuya when he saw the taller pitcher finished wiping off his sweat, with his head held slightly high as if giving the superior aura. "It's important to hydrate yourself after training, is what Chris-senpai always said."

"…Thank you," the ace pitcher said, taking the bottle and accepting the kindness from his rival.

"…Hey, Furuya."

"…What?" Furuya replied to Sawamura as he lowered his bottle, only to see the southpaw walk away for a short distance to bend down and retrieve something. It was then he saw something thrown towards him, which prompted him to drop the bottle that he was holding to catch the baseball glove.

"Wanna play catch?" Sawamura asked, once again giving the wide gleeful smile in hope with a glove on his right hand and a baseball on his left.

_****Line Break****_

"…Nasty."

"Huh?"

"As usual, the ball you throws really moves a lot, so it's hard to catch," Furuya commented as he threw the ball back to the southpaw.

"Well, I haven't really been practicing my pitching, so…" a throw back to the current ace. "But! Your balls are also getting too easy for our ace! You don't really have to go easy on me, you know!"

"…Is that so?" the ball right back to Sawamura.

"Yeah!" Sawamura shouted again as he caught the ball. It was then he twirled his left shoulder, alerting Furuya. "Well then, I think my shoulder is pretty warmed up, mind if I throw harder?"

"…I don't mind."

"Alright!" and with that, Sawamura unexpectedly winded up his leg. "Here I go!" And with a step landed hard on the ground and a twirl of his flexible hips and arms, a sudden four-seam fastball went straight towards Furuya, startling the right-handed pitcher before the ball entered his glove. "How's that?!"

Silence was the only response for a few seconds as Furuya looked at the glove and the ball in his left hand. "…You know, the seniors and coach are not going to be happy if they see you playing catch like this."

"Don't be so picky on the details!" Sawamura annoyingly barked at his rival at the comment, knowing what he said was true. Still under rehabilitation, Sawamura wasn't given the approval to do running and pitching yet with the fear that the injury on his knee would worsen and hence delay his recovery. However, Sawamura, being reckless as always, decided not to care about that it seemed. "Anyway, it's your turn!"

"Huh?"

"Since you allowed me to throw it hard here, it's your turn!" Sawamura exclaimed as he rose up his glove to position himself to get ready to catch. "C'mon! Give me your best shot!"

"…I don't think that's a good idea given your injury-"

"Like I said, don't be so picky on the details!" Sawamura yelled back as he moved his glove around to indicate his impatience. "C'mon! Throw it hard! Over here! Or what? Our ace can't even throw properly while playing catch? What a GREAT and RELIABLE ace you are!"

The taunting definitely worked, causing Furuya to twitch in agitation upon taking in those words and unconsciously and instinctively fired up. Without thinking, Furuya also winded up, landing his foot on the ground hard before swinging his arm for the ball to head straight for Sawamura.

Despite expecting the fastball from Furuya, Sawamura still couldn't react on time hence he failed to hold his ground as the ball reached him. As such, the impact from the heavy 140km/h fastball caused Sawamura to be pushed back and he fell onto the ground, with his butt landed first.

And the fall of Sawamura led Furuya to be aware of what he had done, and he quickly rushed towards the southpaw, heart beating in horror. What if Sawamura was injured, again? What if Sawamura's injuries were worsened, again? What if Sawamura couldn't play baseball, again?

"_Miyuki-senpai. Would things have been different, if I wasn't injured or if I had insisted to play despite my sprained ankle?"_

Fear immediately crept up into his heart as he quickly checked out Sawamura on the ground, panicking as he didn't know what he should or could do at this situation.

"A-Are you alright-"

A hand suddenly crept up to land on his shoulder, causing Furuya to flinch as he stared at the southpaw. The fear in his heart seemed to grow as he could feel trembling from Sawamura. Furuya flinched again as he remembered that something like this happened before.

He remembered where he had accidentally missed the bus to a match in the spring tournament last year, causing him to get stuck in school with an idiotic fellow pitcher. On that day, since there were only two of them, they were stuck with each other in playing catch, where Sawamura had the infortune to catch one of Furuya's heavy fastball which couldn't properly land in his glove. Instead, the ball and the glove flew off, leaving trembles of power and horror onto Sawamura's right hand. Furuya could still remember Sawamura's trembles right after he faced his throw. It was just like how the southpaw was trembling right now, again.

However, instead of seeing the look of appall, Sawamura failed to meet Furuya's expectation, because Furuya definitely didn't expect himself to hear a sound of snicker coming from the southpaw.

And he definitely didn't expect his rival to suddenly burst out laughing as he showed his glove to the monster pitcher.

"Hahahaha! Serves you right, Furuya! Guess what! I caught your ball!"

Furuya's eyes widened as he saw the baseball unmistakably and properly white and clear in the black and dirty glove of Sawamura's.

"Hahaha! You totally didn't expect that, didn't you! Was that a ball thrown by you seriously? Or don't tell me you went easy on me!"

…_I didn't, and that's probably the problem right now._

"Koushuu and Miyuki were right! You ARE getting soft! Don't tell me that's all you've got!"

_I already gave it my all without thinking, and yet…_

"Cause if that's really all you got, it's going to be troubling for ME!"

…_What?_

"Hey, Furuya! You hear me?!" Sawamura yelled as he waved his hand in front of Furuya's face. "…Don't tell me… You're ignoring me again!"

"…What do you mean?"

"Huh?" Sawamura's expression changed to a confused one as Furuya finally answered him.

"What do you mean by you're the one that is going to be troubled?"

"Because!" Sawamura yelled again, despite Furuya just being right in front of him, without any sign of hesitation. "You're my target!"

"…Target?" Furuya could only gasp and freeze on the spot, still finding the words from Sawamura incredulous.

"Yeah! Have you forgotten?" and this time, the southpaw jabbed his finger onto Furuya firmly, eyes showing nothing but honesty and determination. "I've told you before that the ace of this team is me! That means, I'll have to fight it out and get stronger than you to win that title, hence it means my target to reach is YOU! I'll be the one chasing after you, fighting fair and square for that ace number! So if you're telling me that if the ball just now was your best, that's going to be a problem for me too because the power of Seidou's ace shouldn't be something like this!

"Which is why stop moping and stop thinking too much! Since boss had already entrusted you with the ace number, hold onto that number with pride and remain strong for the team! In fact, go ahead and get stronger if you need to, cause I'll recover, and then train hard and get even more stronger than you and then I'll have that number on MY back instead! Hahahaha…Oi! Stop ignoring me dammit!"

Ignoring him? Far from it. Sawamura probably had no idea how much those words of his had impacted on Furuya. Furuya, who was frozen on the spot, registered those words into his heart, finding himself unable to believe that he was hearing such words from his rival-

_Wait a minute… Rival? _And Furuya gasped as he realized something.

Rival. That was the word Furuya had not known during his baseball times in his middle school days.

Rival. That was the word Furuya had become foreign to back in his hometown in Hokkaido.

Rival. That was the word Furuya had to understand when he met Sawamura in Seidou.

Rival. That was the word Furuya had forgotten the meaning since that final match in the fall tournament.

Rival. That was the word Sawamura had considered Furuya.

Rival. That was the word Furuya had considered Sawamura.

Furuya, who was silent for several seconds, suddenly looked up and faced Sawamura straight on, causing the southpaw to flinch as he saw the blue eyes.

That's right, Furuya had totally forgotten. Ever since that match, when he saw Sawamura collapse on the mound, he had totally forgotten. Although he may have been considered the ace of the team, he had totally forgotten that there was someone in the team who would never give up and continue to chase after him, determined to win him and take the ace number away from him. He had totally forgotten the feeling of someone fiercely chasing after him. He had totally forgotten the feeling of someone other than him shining brightly and playing better than him when standing on the mound. He had totally forgotten the feeling of seeing the coach trusting the mound to someone else other than him despite giving him the ace number. He had totally forgotten the feeling of having someone behind to spur you on to keep getting stronger. He had totally forgotten the feeling of having a rival; he had thought that he had lost that right.

And for some reason, it annoyed him when he realized that the person who made him remembered these feelings of having a rival, was his rival himself.

_That's right, if it's him… he can do it._

"…You pissed me off," Furuya suddenly whispered as he stood up. However, Sawamura seemed to manage to catch those words despite the softness in Furuya's voice.

"Huh?!"

_If it's him, he'll definitely be able to reach me sooner or later… No matter how tough it's going to be._

"You pissed me off." Furuya said louder as he turned and lowered his head, as if making sure Sawamura couldn't see his face.

"What the-"

_Even if he gets hurt along the way, he'll always push his body to his limits…for the sake of the team… Just like me._

"You pissed me off!"

"Don't repeat for the third time, dammit!" Sawamura barked as he saw Furuya began walking towards the field gate with the intention to finally call the day and go back to the dorm.

_Which is why, instead of blaming myself for his injury, I need to stop thinking too much._

"Ah, I'm tired," Furuya said to no one in particular as he trudged across the field, wiping the sweat on his forehead with his right hand, still wearing the glove.

_Because all I could do is to get stronger and always play at my best as well, for the team and also… for his sake. _

"Oi, Furuya!" a call from the southpaw made him stop without thinking, which Furuya partially regretted. However, he still turned, decided to find out what Sawamura was up to this time.

And of course, Sawamura never failed to surprise him as he saw Sawamura standing in front of him, with the baseball in his raised right hand. Despite puzzled by such actions, Furuya still instinctively slightly raised his right hand that was still covered in glove. His surprises seemed to have not ended, when Sawamura placed the baseball into his glove.

Bewilderment changed to astonishment, when he looked up to see that usual gleeful wide smile back on Sawamura's face again with the words he would never expect.

"Until I'm back, I'll leave the team to you, ace!"

Furuya's eyes widened again, as he was reminded again of the feeling of his rival spurring him on behind him. He then remembered similar words that were said to him by the very same person when he could feel the despair in that match*…

"_It means, those on the bench believe in the ace!"_

Furuya clenched his glove as he remembered those words. Those words he had also totally forgotten when Sawamura wasn't around.

"Just you wait, Furuya," Sawamura declared as Furuya listened and watched the southpaw's eyes widened with resolve, the smile on the face not yet faded. "I'll definitely catch up to you soon!"

And for some reason, those smile and words were beginning to really annoy him too.

_That's right, I'm the ace, and he's fighting for the same title. I cannot forget that. _

"…You pissed me off."

"Urgh. Stop repeating the same words, dammit!"

_Because he's probably the best rival I could ever get._

**To Be Continued**

***(SPOILER ALERT)** If there's anyone curious about what match Furuya was thinking about, it's the match between Seidou and Ugomori in the fall tournament where thanks to Furuya, Ugomori managed to score 3 points in the very first inning where Furuya was the starting pitcher.

Apologies for the lack of MiSawa/MiyuSawa moments. But I did say before that I'm planning to explore the feelings of most of the regular members of Seidou, so do expect moments and snippets of AllXSawamura friendships here and there.

This chapter is partly dedicated to Furuya, whose birthday falls on the 1st July. Sorry that I'm late for 3 weeks, but nevertheless, Happy Birthday, Furuya!

In any case, please review. I'll love to know what do you think of this chapter and the story so far! Meanwhile, I'll start working on the next chapter! :)

Till next time,  
Ink-chan


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Once again, thank you all for the reviews! Sorry and thanks for all the patience for waiting for this chapter. Had a celebratory week last week because I had my commencement from university and since then been busying myself with celebrations and parties. XD 

And once again, sorry for all mistakes made. As usual, I've not edit/proofread this chapter yet, so feel free to let me know if you find any mistakes, especially for English spelling and grammatical mistakes.

**WARNING: Violence alert **

Without further ado, enjoy~!

**It's Okay**

**Chapter 8**

The silence was definitely killing him.

"…Why the hell am I taking a bath with you right now?"

"…"

"Please say something will you?"

"…"

"I'm begging you, Koushuu."

"…"

_Urgh… That's it. I'm getting out._ Miyuki thought as he stood up from the bathtub, unable to withstand the awkward silence between him and the first year catcher. There was no way the captain could stay with the first year any longer, especially since Koushuu seemed to have no intention of initiating or responding to any form of communications to and from Miyuki. Miyuki sighed as he turned to glance at the blonde one last time before leaving the bathroom. Well, that was kind of expected since the relationship between them should be nothing more than being rivals who were aiming for the same regular catcher position, but the captain didn't think that the first year would take things so seriously to the point that he even refused to talk to him at all during their personal time despite them being able to communicate smoothly during strategy and catchers meetings.

"_I wouldn't worry so much, Miyuki-senpai. Koushuu acts like that almost to everyone, even me."_ _But, even if Seto's right, that doesn't change the fact that he's an unbearable brat._

Once he was out, Miyuki promptly put on his clean shirt and sweat pants before picking up his glasses from his basket and putting them on. And just as Miyuki was about to leave once he gathered all his dirty clothes and toiletries, the door slide opened before he had the chance to open himself, causing Miyuki to bump into the taller newcomer.

"Oh, Furuya, done with your running?" Miyuki asked when he immediately recognized the monster pitcher who had just entered the bathroom. Furuya nodded in response before walking pass his senior to place his basket of new clothes into one of the shelves, while the catcher made his way to exit the bathroom.

"Wait a minute, Miyuki-senpai," said catcher stopped upon hearing the voice of Furuya, prompting him to turn, where he saw Furuya suddenly standing straight up right in front of him, eyes showing unwavering determination that surprised the third year catcher.

"What's wrong, Furuya?"

"…I just thought that I should say this," Furuya said as he clenched his fist, which didn't went unnoticed by the catcher, confusing Miyuki even further. And Miyuki was not prepared for Furuya to suddenly bow down his head, his back bending down in the ninety degrees angle. "I am very sorry for all the troubles I've caused for the past few months, especially during the Jingu tournament and the Senbatsu. I know that I didn't manage to live up to everyone's expectations and I've been making the team worried about me."

Miyuki could almost swear that he could feel his jaw dropped as he heard Furuya's sincere apology. Indeed, ever since the second year had recovered from his ankle injury, the pitcher didn't perform as well as everyone had hoped, and everyone had thought that it was due to the lack of practice he had when he was recovering. However, his performances didn't seem to be improving after that; in fact sometimes his play seemed to have gotten worse when he wasn't in form. Also, despite Miyuki kept reminding the pitcher to control his pace, Furuya seemed to have ignored every single advice to rest, causing him to sometimes get criticized by his captain and his teammates for overworking himself even though he knew that his stamina would not last long.

"_Have you forgotten what everyone has been telling you? Stop trying to play baseball by yourself and look around you!"_

"But from now on, it's going to be different," Furuya determinedly said as he stood up straight, again with the eyes with the unwavering determination. "So, as usual, I'll be in your care from now on."

Miyuki blinked, stunned upon hearing that declaration for a while. He then continued to observe the current ace longer, and after some time, he began to smile when he saw that the determination in the taller pitcher's eyes still remained.

"Haha! Took you long enough to realize your mistake," Miyuki said as he showed his signature wicked grin and patted Furuya's shoulder purposely hard. "Well then, since you said it, things are going to get harder for you, Mr. Ace! Because you are going to everything in your power to make up for the twenty runs you gave up during the spring tournament!"

Furuya twitched upon hearing that comment; unable to comprehend on the number on runs he lost to his opponents during the Senbatsu. _Since when did I lose twenty points?!_

"To be exact, that's nineteen points," the door behind him suddenly opened, revealing Koushuu who just entered from his finished bath. Again, Furuya twitched upon hearing more comments about his pitching and started sweating even though he hadn't entered the hot bath yet. "With majority of them came from the nine points lost to Ichidai-san high school in the quarter-finals."

"And if you're going to pitch more wildly again, there's no doubt Kawakami will take the ace number from you~!" Miyuki commented in a gleeful tone with a sneer on his face, being uncannily cheerful about it. However, instead of the fire-up response he usually expected and received from the pitcher, Furuya unexpectedly gasped and became silent, surprising Miyuki as Furuya clenched his fist again as he stared at the bathroom floor.

"It's not only Kawakami-senpai."

"Huh?"

"It's not only Kawakami-senpai that may take the ace number away from me," Furuya said as he slightly raised his face. "HE may be the one who will take that number away from me instead."

And not only Miyuki, but also Koushuu was surprised as well, by the determination and the gentleness behind those eyes and voice, and also by the small smile on the face of their monster pitcher.

"He?" Koushuu asked, still confused by his senior's words, but widened his eyes as he realized the meaning behind. "You don't mean?"

And that was the second time a smile was adorned on Miyuki's face.

_****Line Break****_

He twirled his foot, trying to calm his feelings as he stood on his favorite mound.

"_What?! Wait a minute, boss! What do you mean by I can't take part in the Kanto tournament?!"_

He tightened his hold on the baseball in his left hand, as if confirming its presence.

"_It's exactly what I mean. I'm taking you out for the Kanto tournament." _

He raised his left arm, placing the hand with the baseball to hide in his baseball glove.

"_In your condition and ability right now, you're not ready for the tournament, and I doubt you will be on time."_

He exhaled, releasing the breath he had held in during the whole process.

"_But there's a chance I'll recover on time! As long as I practice more when I recovered, I'm sure that I can make it for the tournament! I really think that I'm ready to play anytime!"_

He looked up, imagining Miyuki crouching down behind the two batter boxes, his mitt already in position.

"_Then get your doctor's approval to me. If I remembered very well, you said the same thing to me before didn't you? Even though the doctor hasn't given you permission to play in a game yet."_

He winded up, and then raised his right leg.

"_Must I remind you what had happened after that game you played with the second string against the first-years?"_

He tightened his right glove as he lowered his right arm, left foot landing hard on the mound causing sand and dirt to sweep across his foot.

"_But that's purely an accident! It's not going to affect my pitching!"_

He twirled his left arm behind his body, before swinging hard across his shoulder, sending the ball straight onto the wall, resulting in a firm thump sound.

"_My decision is final, Sawamura. I'm taking you out for the Kanto tournament."_

He sighed, watching the baseball dropped onto the ground softly after its impact with the wall.

"_Until I get the doctor's approval, I will not put you to practice or play any games till I know that you're ready. Understand that, Sawamura?"_

And Sawamura could feel himself biting his lips as he remembered those words from head coach Kataoka. He knew fully well that the coach was right. After insisting on playing in that match against the first-years, Sawamura's knee condition relapsed unexpectedly, causing delays in his recovery process. He was ordered by the doctor to rest his knee well and stopped playing baseball for some time before starting his rehabilitation from the basic exercises again. He was then reprimanded quite harshly by many people; his condition was already improving, but suddenly turned for the worse because he played on that match without the doctor's permission.

The southpaw lowered his head as he reflected, looking at his feet on the mound. The feel of the mound on his feet and the feel of his pitching on his arms and shoulders lingered, making him reminisce and yearn for those days when he played with his teammates from Akagi Junior High and Seidou. He then raised his left hand to land on his chest, narrowing his eyes as he clenched his fist hard, as if trying to calm his heart from all the feelings accumulated inside.

The regrets he felt when he realized from Suzuki and Koushuu that the team had been probably suffering all these time because of him.

The disappointment he felt when the doctor said he couldn't play baseball for months and when the coach took him out of the first string team.

The envy he felt when he saw his teammates practicing hard without him and when he saw Suzuki training hard under his watch.

The longing he felt when he stood on the field and on the mound during practice and when Miyuki was catching for Furuya and Kawakami.

And Sawamura tightened his fist even further, bit his lips even harder as he realized just how much that he yearned to be playing baseball and standing on the field with his friends and teammates again. He could also feel tears accumulating at the back of his eyes.

_I can't. At least, not here, where anyone could see-_

"Oi, what are you doing, idiot?" a smack on his head suddenly came and interrupted his thoughts, and the pitcher was pushed forward slightly by the impact on his head.

"Ouch!" Sawamura yelled as he promptly held onto his head, clenching at the area where it hurt from the smack he received. He quickly turned back to his attacker with an annoyed frown, small tears forming in his eyes due to the pain he received. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Kuramochi-senpai?!"

"I should be the one asking that, idiot," Kuramochi said as he jabbed his finger onto his roommate. "What the hell are you doing, moping and getting depressed here all by yourself."

"I-I'm not moping at all! And I'm not depressed!" Sawamura stuttered out his answer very quickly, which apparently made the shortstop slightly upset.

"Oh really?" He then cracked his fists with a sinister smile, trying to obviously show that he was annoyed by Sawamura. "You've got a lot of guts to yell back at me huh? Since when did you become so rude and cheeky?"

"W-Wait a minute!" Sawamura yelled in fear, raising both his hands up in surrender as he stepped back away from the shortstop. "I'm someone injured, senpai!"

"And you think that's going to make me hold back?"

"Ah, no! Wait!" Sawamura shouted, and quickly crossed his arms in front of his face and got into a defensive position on instinct, readying himself for the soon-to-come pain and torment from his violent roommate.

But surprisingly, nothing came.

Sawamura blinked, not once, not twice, but thrice before slightly lowering his guard, surprised to see that his roommate was standing in front of him, hands in his sweat pants pockets instead of in a position ready to wrestle him. The annoyed frown was still on his face though, but Kuramochi showed no indication at all to torment his junior it seemed. Upon seeing this, Sawamura completely lowered his guard, but still stunned by his roommate's silence and actions.

"Kuramochi-senpai?"

"Tch," Kuramochi quickly turned as he clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Time to head back, idiot. Kanemaru's waiting for you."

"Huh?"

"Have you forgotten already? You're the one who asked him to help you with your homework; he's been in our room waiting for you since he finished his shower after dinner time."

"Ah," Sawamura dismissed his shock as he remembered his appointment with his classmate. "Shit, he's there already?"

"Yeah, though I'm not sure he's still there now," Kuramochi commented as he started walking; which soon after he could heard footsteps behind following him. "He was getting pretty impatient just now, so is either he had already left feeling very annoyed with you, or he had thought of some evil ways to punish you with your homework."

"What?!" Sawamura paused upon hearing those words. "No way!"

"Who knows?" Kuramochi secretly smirked when he heard his roommate panicking. Like Miyuki, teasing Sawamura had always been one of his favorite pastimes. "I think that you deserved it; spending your time moping there at the mound."

"Like I said, I'm not moping at all!"

"Oh really?" Kuramochi questioned as he turned around and stared at the southpaw more intensely, as if he was trying to observe and study him more closely. "You sure you're not standing on the mound there beginning to cry whenever you remember that you are unable to join us in practice due to your knee injury?"

Kuramochi could swear that he could hear Sawamura gasped in response to his question, proving that what he said was right.

"The coach had told me that he's pulling you out of the Kanto tournament, and I believe that it was the right decision."

"But, senpai, I-"

"Coach wants you skip the whole Kanto tournament and concentrate on your recovery in time for the summer tournament, rather than using you for the Kanto tournament when you haven't recover fully and risk another relapse which may cause you to unable to play in the summer tournament; you do understand that, don't you?"

"I know that! But…"

"Just forget about the Kanto tournament for now," Kuramochi almost sighed when he saw the disappointment on his junior's face. "It's not just you, you know."

"Huh?" Sawamura looked at his senior in surprise and confusion upon hearing those words.

"It's not just you that's looking forward to playing with everyone," Kuramochi stated as he turned again, making Sawamura face his back again. "Everyone's waiting for you too; to come back and play with us."

"Kuramochi-senpai…"

"I'm sure the whole regulars team are waiting and looking forward to playing with you again," Kuramochi stated again, this time looking up to the moon as he said it. "After all, it's going to be our last summer for some of us."

And upon hearing those words, Sawamura's eyes widened, and he could swear that something was caught in his throat, making him unable to breath for a few seconds as he registered those words and the meaning behind.

"The last summer?"

"Yeah," Kuramochi, who was still speaking with his back facing Sawamura, failed to realize the sudden change in the pitcher's mood. "For me, Shirasu, Kawakami, Zono and of course Miyuki; it's finally going to be our last summer, huh? To us, it's our last chance to go to Koshien. Which is why, we're looking forward to playing with you again, Bakamura."

Kuramochi smiled as he said those words, and began to reminisce his past three years in Seidou baseball team. After coming here all the way from his hometown in Chiba Prefecture, Kuramochi had gone through a lot in order for him to become one of the regulars in Seidou and now the vice-captain of this established team. He remembered the tough times he had to go through during these three years. He remembered the fun times he had during these three years. He remembered the regrets he felt when the team couldn't make it to Koshien. He remembered the disappointment when he wasn't selected as the captain. He remembered the joy whenever the team won a game. He remembered the ecstatic feelings when he realized in his first year that everyone in Seidou was just as an idiot and maniac about baseball as much as him.

All in all, he was really glad that he came to Seidou; and he was sure most of his other teammates too.

"So," Kuramochi began speaking as he turned to face his roommate again. "Hurry up and recover-" However, he found his voice stopped by the shock he received when he saw his roommate.

"W-W-What the hell, Sawamura! Why the hell are you crying?!"

And true enough, Sawamura was standing there, using his arms to cover his face but it was fairly obvious that he was sobbing due to the tracks of tears flowing on his arms and parts of the face that wasn't covered well. Kuramochi panicked upon the sight. Sure he knew how to keep the southpaw's mouth shut when he's noisy and irritating, but it's a totally different matter when his roommate was really crying his heart out. He could only quickly look around him praying for some form of help as the southpaw standing in front of him continued sniveling.

"Oi, Sawamura, why are you-"

"I-I'm sorry… senpai… I-I have totally forgotten…" Sawamura sniffled as he tried wiping away his tears with his arms and sleeves of his shirt. "T-T-That it was yours and Miyuki's last summer…"

Kuramochi froze upon hearing those words. He didn't think that his last comment would bring out this result. "O-Oi Sawamura, don't-"

"Shit, I'm so pathetic," Sawamura suddenly said as he tried hard to calm down, but find it difficult when the tears refused to stop, when his heart refused to stop pumping fast out of anxiety and when his breathing refused to stop rushing out of panic and fear when he realized.

_It's going to be Miyuki's last summer._

"I-I'm sorry, senpai… I totally forget that… It's yours and Miyuki's last chance for Koshien… And yet… I'm still here getting all weak and pathetic… No wonder the coach refused to let me play…"

_It's going to be Miyuki's last summer._

"What the hell are you saying? That's-"

"But it's true isn't it?!" Sawamura suddenly yelled, causing Kuramochi to step back in shock as he saw Sawamura's tears continued to flow, his red eyes without doubt full of regrets, dread and unease. "It's going to senpai's last summer, and yet I'm still being so pathetic and weak that I couldn't play! Do you have any idea how I felt when I saw everyone practice so hard everyday, when all I could do was either cheered for everyone behind or watched miserably how much everyone improves after every practice and game while I couldn't do anything?! What if I couldn't recover on time?! What if I'm still stuck like this when the summer tournament comes! I won't be able to play with you guys for the last time! I won't be able to form a battery with Miyuki anymore! And I won't be able to go Koshien with you guys anymore!"

Sawamura stopped yelling as he realized he couldn't hold back his breathe anymore. Instead, he continued to keep lamenting with the same thoughts.

_It's going to be Miyuki's last summer._

"Even if it's the last summer, I still want to be part of the team… I want to play with you guys… for the last time…" and Sawamura went back to his previous state of crying more softly as he tried hard to wipe away his tears, trying to calm himself down. But for some reason he couldn't, probably because the same thoughts kept running in his mind.

_It's going to be Miyuki's last summer._

_And I might not be able to play with him._

_Am I… going to be left behind?_

_Again?_

And once again, Sawamura found that he was unable to stop himself from crying his emotions of unease and anxiety out, feeling extremely miserable with himself. At this point, he didn't care anymore. He didn't care that his roommate was right in front of him. He didn't care that if anyone, even Miyuki, would suddenly pass by and saw him wailing in the middle of the field. He had been hiding his true feelings for the past few months, and he didn't feel better when he was fully aware that he had only himself to blame. His tears just refused to stop. He could not stop crying.

_Shit, I am so pathetic. A member of Seidou's baseball first-string team? The ace? What rights do I have to call myself the ace and a member of this awesome team when I'm so pathetic that I'm here crying like a kid-_

Sawamura's thoughts suddenly got interrupted, and the southpaw gasped when he suddenly felt himself being pulled, eyes widened as he landed on a chest, while an arm firmly wrapped around his shoulders and a hand gently maneuvered his face to be hidden at the other's shoulder.

"Idiot," the shortstop said softly and gently as he turned and stretched his neck to the other side, avoiding looking at Sawamura's crying face. "If you're really that upset about not being able to play with us, then you just have to recover quickly. Hurry up and recover and then practice hard to be able to play with us. I said already didn't I? Everyone's waiting patiently for you, so hurry up and come back to us, Bakamura."

Sawamura's eyes widened even further, and Kuramochi sighed as he heard it once again, trying not to wince as he felt his shirt and shoulder getting wetter as seconds passed.

_****Line Break****_

Kominato Haruichi had always thought that he knew almost everything about his best friend. As someone who always hanged out with Sawamura whenever during games and practices, he always thought that he knew almost everything about him. He even knew about his secret relationship with their baseball captain. That was how close they were supposed to be.

However, Haruichi couldn't help but begin to feel otherwise these days, especially ever since that final match in the last fall tournament. He almost couldn't believe that he didn't realize that his best friend was injured due to the rough play during their semi-final match. He almost couldn't believe it that he didn't realize that he was currently dating his captain not until two months later after they started. And most importantly, he almost couldn't believe it that he didn't realize how much unhappy and depressed the pitcher actually was all these time when the pitcher was fully aware that he couldn't join in the trainings and games together with everyone yet.

So Haruichi could only start to blame himself, when he saw the southpaw in his defense partner's arms, crying his heart out again after he yelled out his true feelings seconds ago. He then began to remember; Sawamura's smiles, Sawamura's laughter, Sawamura's act of superiority and confidence for the past few months ever since he was released from his hospitalization and came back to Seidou. _Don't tell me… Eijun-kun, It was all an act?_

It was then he briefly remembered Sawamura brushing him away this afternoon after his warm up, when Suzuki suddenly charged towards Sawamura in order to tell him something that seemed very important. And it was at that thought that Haruichi began to wonder what words were shared between the two pitchers, and then began to panic as it inspired him. _Could it be? That Suzuki told Eijun-kun about yesterday and-_

"Hoh? Is that Sawamura and Kuramochi?" Haruichi gasped as his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by an unexpected voice that came from behind him, and he turned around to face the source of the voice. However, he immediately regretted it, because he was suddenly faced with probably one of the most terrifying stare he had ever seen in his whole life that sent an unpleasant chill down the second baseman's spine. Haruichi almost cursed as he realized who had entered the scene, and began to shiver out of fear for what happened next.

After all, almost nothing good happened whenever Miyuki Kazuya was truly and extremely angry.

_****Line Break****_

The sound of the field gate being slammed echoed throughout the field, causing both the pitcher and shortstop to jolt in shock and prompted them to turn to see what or who was the source of the noise. And to his horror, Sawamura saw Miyuki standing there by the gate, watching intensely at the two standing on the baseball field. Sawamura gasped and quickly wiped away his tears thoroughly with his sleeves while Kuramochi cursed, not failing to notice the intense and heavy stare they were receiving from the catcher as Miyuki began to stalk his way towards the two. And of course, both Sawamura and Kuramochi didn't fail to notice the rage and murderous intent behind those eyes of Miyuki's.

"M-Miyuki? What's wrong-ah!" Sawamura winced and screamed in pain when he was roughly pulled by his wrist into his boyfriend's arms. "Hey! What do you think you're-"

But the pitcher was immediately silenced by the death glare and the harsh grip around his waist he received, and petrified on the spot when he realized how infuriated Miyuki was. His eyes widened when he could feel the intense aura from the catcher and he could almost cry again; the fear inside him due to Miyuki's anger seemed to be worse than that incident a year ago when he criticized Chris in front of him and also that incident when he was teased by Miyuki's father.

Overwhelmed by the anger within those eyes and aura, Sawamura quickly lowered his head and closed his eyes tightly, trying hard not to wince from the pain he felt on his waist due to Miyuki's hard grip. Thanks to that, he was totally oblivious that the shortstop was avoiding looking into the eyes of the catcher.

And also, he was definitely not prepared to be suddenly pulled away harshly by a hand tightly gripped onto his shoulder, walking away awkwardly as he was guided by Miyuki.

And Kuramochi could only silently watch the couple walk away, worrying about what might happened to the pitcher.

_****Line Break****_

Sawamura didn't dare to look up. He didn't dare to say a word. Even though he was feeling uncomfortable and pained from the harsh grip he had on his shoulder and the intense aura he received from Miyuki, he still dared not look at or speak to his boyfriend. He could only obediently and quietly followed the catcher to his dorm room, where Miyuki quickly and harshly slammed open the door and glared hard at his roommate who had jumped and sat up in shock from his bed while he was reading a manga.

"Seto. Get out of the room. NOW." And of course no one dared to defy the captain's wrath, hence Seto could only immediately obey his orders, promptly and quickly scrambled out of the room with his manga still in hand without closing the door. And just when Seto was walked pass the threshold, Miyuki instantly slammed the door closed loudly again and pushed, causing Sawamura to shriek in pain when his back hit the door brutally hard and when his hands were frantically shoved onto the door on both sides of his head.

"Miyuki!" Unable to take the torment and harsh treatment from his boyfriend any longer, Sawamura tried to talk reason with the catcher. But it all seemed to fail, especially when Miyuki showed no intention to listen and let Sawamura talk by suddenly and fiercely landing his lips onto Sawamura's.

Sawamura's eyes widened as he was kissed. And his shock was soon amplified when suddenly Miyuki bit down his lips hard, causing the pitcher to yell out in pain allowing Miyuki's tongue to gain access into his mouth. Sawamura was definitely not prepared for the tongue to be suddenly shoved into his mouth only to be roughly ravaged by Miyuki's tongue and even teeth. And Sawamura moaned upon the contact, unable to identify whether the moan was out of pleasure or pain, which the answer became clear when Miyuki bit his lips painfully hard again, this time enabling the pitcher to taste the metallic liquid oozing from his lips.

"W-Wait! Miyuki-" again, Miyuki refused to let Sawamura speak with another rough kiss, but this time during the kiss he released the pitcher's hands, only for his hands to go under Sawamura's shirt. Sawamura could also painfully feel a rough thrust on the area between his legs by Miyuki's knee; his hands instinctively went onto the catcher's shoulders and pushed.

But the push was futile, evident by a counter push from Miyuki that further shoved Sawamura onto the wall. The kiss was then broke when air was needed, but Sawamura found no room to breathe for Miyuki had immediately dove into his neck, kissing and nipping at every single area Miyuki's lips could find.

"M-Miyuki, stop. This isn't-Ah!" a roar of pain resulted soon enough, when Sawamura could feel a breach of his skin on his neck by vicious teeth. His fear intensified further when he could feel a hand feeling up on one of his butt cheeks through his pants, before the pair of pants were quickly removed and dropped onto the floor. Fortunately, his boxers remained. "No! Wait! Miyuki! Don't!"

_No, please, this isn't what I want._

"Miyuki! I said stop!"

"…Stop?" Sawamura froze after a hand roughly held onto his chin and turned it, forcing Sawamura to look directly onto Miyuki's angry eyes. "Why should I, when it seems that you have forgotten whose boyfriend you are?"

Sawamura could feel tears accumulating at the back of his eyes again when he saw the anger and heard those words from his boyfriend.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, crying in someone else's arms other than mine, especially in Kuramochi's? You can't blame me if I start thinking that there's something going on between the two of you, you know."

"No! You're wrong! There's nothing-"

"Nothing? Then does that mean you prefer to cry in his arms rather than mine? Does that mean you trust him more than me? Speaking of that, he was the only one wasn't it?"

"What?"

"He was the only one who knew about your injury during that final match," Miyuki could feel his rage inside amplified as he remembered that incident. "He was the only bastard that knew about your injury, but he chose to keep quiet. So you decided that you could only trust him with your secrets huh?"

"No! That's-"

"So tell me, when did it start? Between you and Kuramochi? Oh wait, maybe it's not just him; how many more had you seduced," and upon that Miyuki's hands on Sawamura's face tightened even further, pulling their face closer to each other. "With this cute crying face of yours?"

And Sawamura froze again, stunned by those hurtful words he had heard. He suddenly wondered if this was a dream. He suddenly wondered if the person right in front of him was really Miyuki or not, because Miyuki would never, ever say those words to hurt him. No. Not that gentle and considerate Miyuki, despite his difficult and twisted personality.

Or so he always thought.

Petrified, Sawamura began to feel nothing, even when Miyuki had started his rough intimacy on his body again. He could feel nothing when Miyuki bit his earlobe viciously. He could feel nothing when Miyuki had bit his nipples harshly through his shirt. He could feel nothing when Miyuki gripped his hips tightly and shoved him brutally hard to the door again.

Because the only thing he could probably feel, was the pain and agony in his heart as Miyuki's hurtful words ran through his mind throughout.

And all he could probably do, was to let his tears flow freely down from his eyes and let his body tremble in fear and ruin.

Miyuki paused, hearing the sniffles and feeling the shivers. His anger and jealousy had told him not to look up, but he ignored them, looking up to see his boyfriend crying while covering his mouth with his hand, eyes tightly closed and shivered, as if surrendering to his fate.

Miyuki's eyes widened upon the sight. And that was when he registered what had happened.

Sawamura was crying.

Sawamura was crying because of his rough treatment.

Sawamura was crying because of his harsh words.

Sawamura was crying because of him.

Miyuki froze as he looked at the pitcher's face. He had seen Sawamura cried. He had seen Sawamura cried in the past, once when Chris wasn't chosen to be in the first-string, once when the team lost in the final of the summer preliminaries last year and once when he was told he could have to quit baseball in the hospital months ago. Sawamura's crying face had never really affected him a lot in the past, but now it was different.

Because the cause of those tears right now was none other than Miyuki himself.

On the other hand, Sawamura, feeling the pause from Miyuki, slowly opened his eyes to glance what had happened. When he saw Miyuki freezing on the spot and gaping at him, Sawamura began to hope as he removed his hand and moved his mouth.

"Miyuki… Please stop…" and Sawamura closed his eyes again, using both of his hands to cover his face as he began to sob.

Miyuki's eyes widened even further as he saw and heard his boyfriend's plead. He didn't even think; his mind was empty when he saw Sawamura crying, and unconsciously he began to loosen his hold on Sawamura's hips. Feeling the loosening, Sawamura immediately took this opportunity to instinctively and roughly push Miyuki away from him, causing Miyuki to fall back and land on the floor. As quickly as he could, Sawamura pulled up and wore his pants and turn to open the door before sprinting and escaping out of Miyuki's room, ignoring Miyuki's any attempt to call out to him by slamming the door closed after that.

_Shit_. And Miyuki could only watch his boyfriend running away from him. He then smacked his own face with his palm, annoyed and frustrated with himself. _What the hell had I done?_

_****Line Break****_

He swore. He swore that he would get back to him next Monday during class. He would make sure that the teacher would know that that idiot had not done his homework and properly punished him. He would make sure that he would enjoy tormenting him with his homework during lunch break and after school. For now, he shall ignore every single plead from that idiot, and he shall refused any request from that idiot to help him with his backlog and weekend homework.

Because there was no way that Kanemaru could forgive Sawamura easily for treating him like a fool. Who did that Sawamura think he was, making him wait for him to come back for the past two hours, especially since he was the one that requested his help? He didn't care that he was talking to Furuya and Kuramochi before that. He didn't care that he was taken away by Miyuki after that. He just wanted Sawamura to make sure that he would show him more respect in the future.

_Damn you, Sawamura. Is that how you treat someone who's willing to take his time off just to help you with your homework?_

At that thought, Kanemaru took a deep breath and sighed, finally decided to stop thinking about that idiotic pitcher for today and sleep for the night.

And as he continued walking back to his room, the sound of a door being slammed was suddenly heard, and Kanemaru promptly looked up towards the sound, which came from the second floor of his dorm building. Even though he couldn't see properly due to the darkness of the corridor, sounds of someone rushing down the stairs was soon heard after that, thus he turned his attention towards the stairs, only to be shocked by the sight he'd seen.

"Sawamura?" Kanemaru called when he saw said pitcher running down the stairs, panting very heavily for someone who just ran down a few steps of the staircase.

And Sawamura, who heard his name being called, promptly turned to the source, only to miss a step, causing him to widen his eyes as he fell and landed on the last few steps before rolling down the stairs and onto the ground.

And Kanemaru could only widen his eyes in shock as he witnessed the whole episode.

"Sawamura!"

**To Be Continued**

Oh God, it's 7a.m. already?! Haha!

Anyway, please review! Let me know how do you feel about this chapter please!

Oh and because I am starting my work soon, there's a chance I won't be able to update as fast as I used to. But nevertheless, I'll always try my best to update as soon as I can! Promise! Because just as you readers enjoy reading my story, I enjoy writing this story as well! (Although I still couldn't see a direction and an ending for this story haha)

So once again, please do review! Thank you for all the support!

Regards,  
Ink-chan :)


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